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THE CHURCH 


Founded 


By Our Lord Jesus Christ. 


“ One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.” 


Revelation i: 5 and 6 —Unto Him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in His own blood, 

And bath made us kings and priests unto God and His 
Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever 
Amen. 



“ Come lord Jesus Come Quickly.” 


Philadelphia: 

Press of Geo. F. Lasheu, 












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PREFACE. 


The Church founded by our Sovereign Lord 
is an organic community wherein every member 
is a part of the one great whole body; a divine 
society, in whose organism none are isolated, 
none rejected, none sent empty away; all, every 
member in living vital union with the Head, 
who is in heaven. A community whose primary 
distinction is the possession of a life bom from 
above, nurtured and developed, held and kept 
together by the bond of the Spirit, and in love 
guided into all truth. Hence, believers who 
study the word discover ample breadth and 
scope for the free and happy exercise of soul- 
libertv in all its manifold phases of spiritual 
expression; meeting the every want of the soul 
in its breathing after God; finding its own best 
methods of spiritual utterance in a “Thus saith 
the Lord;” believing the word in the formal 
and substantial declaration of its inspiration, 
and with filial confidence accepting it as of suffi¬ 
cient rule of faith and practice; and as such the 
5 



6 


THE CHURCH. 


word is inclusive of things necessary to salva¬ 
tion, the things of faith to be believed, and in 
whom to trust; the things of practice, or what 
we are to do; how we are to live unto Him who 
hath redeemed us, and how believers are to 
spread the knowledge of His grace, and extend 
His kingdom on the earth. A perfect, infallible 
truth to be obeyed in the full surrender of faith; 
the divine mould to stamp the impress of the 
Spirit’s work in the hearts of believers, “Thy 
truth, which sanctifies through the Word.” 
Never rigid, nor cold, nor inert; but soul-lifting 
in the warmth of adoration, bringing the be¬ 
liever face to face in personal relation, through 
the Spirit, unto the presence of his Lord in di¬ 
vine communion; stimulating his faith faculty 
to a clearer sense of his dependence upon the 
continued grace of God and the gracious desire 
of the Lord Jesus for the unity of the Church, 
the one perfect heavenly bride, for whom Christ 
died; the one unique corporate body of regen¬ 
erated character, the kingdom of God. 

Rev. vii: 17 .—For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the 
throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living foun¬ 
tains of water, and Ood shall wipe away all tears from 
their eyes. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

The Church of Christ a Body of Believers, 
CHAPTER II. 

Love, the Identifying Law of the Church, 
CHAPTER III. 

The Source of Fellowship of the Church in Christ, 
CHAPTER IV. 

The Believer’s Citizenship is of Heavenly Origin, 
CHAPTER V. 

The Gospel Truth the Order to Christian Duty in 
the Church. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Unity of the Church,. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church, . 
CHAPTER VIII. 

The Holy Spirit, the Bond of Believers in the Love 
of Christ, . . . . ’ . 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Believer the Means Employed to Make Known 
the Glad Tidings of Salvation Under the Tui¬ 
tion of the Holy Spirit,. 

CHAPTER X. 

The Doctrinal Basis of the Church the Written 
Word,. 


PAGE. 

44 

70 

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121 

143 

159 

179 

197 

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“UNITY WITHOUT UNIFORMITY.” 


“ One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.” 

“THE CHURCH ” 

FOUNDED BY THE EORD JESUS CHRIST. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST A BODY OF BEUEVERS. 

I Corinthian xii: 13. —By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, 
whether we be Jews or Gentiles , whether we be bond or free ; and 
have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 

Ephesians iv : 4, 5, 6.— There is one body and one Spirit , even as ye are 
called in one hope of your calling. 

One Lord, one faith , one baptism. 

One God and Father of all , who is above all , and through all , 
and in you all. 

A community whose primary distinction is 
the possession of a heaven-born life. 

Christians throughout Christendom believe 
at some time (“time to come”), there will be a 
universal Church, and irrespective of name, or 
denomination, association or affiliation, in what¬ 
ever form of Church government, of phase of 
Church life, or mode of expression, they may 
assume, in all its varied and apparently com- 
plexed diversity, under any and all formulas be 




10 


THE CHURCH. 


it as expressed by the extreme ritualist, with all 
the ritualistic genuflections and sacramental- 
ism down through the vast array of outward and 
external forms of Church organization, in its 
methods of conducting worship through all its 
external gradation, to the quiet meditation of 
the silent member of the Society of Friends, 
however paradoxical it may appear, and in what¬ 
ever form it may be bodied forth, they all agree 
upon this one, broad cardinal truth, namely, 
The Church of Jesus Christ was founded by 
Him, and He is her life, and her “all and in all.” 
He is her Sovereign Lord, ruling and over¬ 
ruling to the glory of God. 

Christ Jesus is the Lord, the Church is His 
bride made, and being continually made, ready 
for the “Annointed One,” and the gracious 
unification of the Spirit working in and through 
the Church, leads with singular and marked 
unanimity the Christian host to agree that the 
will of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be obeyed. 
And notwithstanding the apparent contradiction 
of the arrayed and much controverted questions 
of Church polity, its doctrinal and theological 
disputes to the contrary. The Church of 
Christ should, and will finally, become a 


THE CHURCH. 


11 


unit on the great central question of obedi¬ 
ence to Him; and His authority should be, 
and must be, absolutely supreme in all ques¬ 
tions of Church life, because the “Father hath 
given all things into His hands,” and in “Him 
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “He 
is before all things, and by Him all things con¬ 
sist,” and He is the head of the body, the 
Church; hence the infinite, infallible will of the 
Lord Christ to all believers is absolute submis¬ 
sion; the Christian in willing obedience gladly 
obeys, remembering “the servant is not above 
His Lord.” Thus submission to Jesus Christ in 
“all things” is the one distinguishing character¬ 
istic of the Christian, the distinctive escutcheon 
of the believer. This is enforced by injunction 
and precept in all the gospels and the epistles. 
The Lord, during his ministry in earth, was 
graciously pleased to call into His service men 
who were in close touch with Him, who, amid 
the joumeyings of those trying times of sorrow, 
and His passion, with its all but insurmountable 
difficulties, arrayed upon all sides, those men 
called “the disciples of the Lord,” enjoyed in a 
marked degree, His confidence. They were in 
close touch with Him, in daily contact; noting 


12 


THE CHURCH. 


His blessed life, sharing the pleasure of His 
inspiring conversation, witnessing the gracious 
pity for the burdened, and of His miraculous 
miracles, again were they favored to know in 
an especial manner His will concerning the 
spread of the Gospel tidings of good will to 
men. 

Eye witnesses of the Lord, well might the 
redeemed Church in all ages, feel like the 
traveler to the “Land of Beulah” in Zion’s 
way, wished to have been “there with Him 
then,” and like the saintly John declared “That 
which was from the beginning, which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the 
Word of life.” Called as they were into the 
immediate service of the Lord Christ, had a spe¬ 
cial work to do, namely, witnessing of the 
Christ, and, as already seen, they were especially 
qualified by gifts of striking superhuman, and 
marvelous powers of healing the sick, blind, 
halt and maimed were conferred upon them, 
but upon them only, were those gifts conferred. 
It was then, to the Apostles, guided by the 
Holy Spirit, who was to lead them, and thus 
led they exercised their gifts with no cold legal¬ 
ism; they laid no claim to superhuman powers, 


THE CHURCH. 


13 


but in every case were used of tbe Holy Spirit 
in performing those miracles, and so recognized 
the office, using it to the glory of their ascend¬ 
ed Lord; hence the one and sole method of 
securing unity and obedience was by inducing 
the believers to recognize them as taught of the 
Lord Christ, and the influence they exercised 
in the Church was spiritual, instructing the be¬ 
liever in the manifold wisdom of God. Ho 
form, or set of ironclad, external system of wor¬ 
ship marked their ministry; no prescribed priest¬ 
ly rules, or man-evolved notion of position in 
all the gradations of more recent Church life. 
The bond of unity, uniting them as disciples 
and followers was a lively faith, “beholding 
Him” their righteousness, “peace and joy” in 
the Holy Ghost. In this particular did the 
Apostles differ from all the “ministers of the 
word,” and that difference consisted, as stated, 
in the power to work miracles of healing, etc. 
They enjoyed the privilege of accompanying 
our Lord during His ministry; in the gracious 
and blessed fellowship they were called 
“friends.” He received them into His confi¬ 
dence, revealing to them the hidden mysteries 
of the kingdom, unfolding by illustration and 




14 


THE CHURCH. 


wondrous signs the blessed truths; hence the 
Gospel narration, which abounds in metaphor 
and parable, ever presenting to the Church, 
in clear and forceful manner, teaching so 
thoughtful and suggestive lessons by analogy, 
the “sheep and the shepherd,” the “way and the 
life,” the “well and the water.” Thus schooled 
under the tuition of the blessed Master who 
“taught as one having authority,” those men 
were fitted in a marked degree for the glorious 
work they wrought in the Church; they were 
in possession of testimony as “eye witnesses,” 
whose assertion should satisfy the most earnest 
searcher after truth, and silence for all time 
any caviler about the right to know the mind 
of the Lord. 

Some of them were in relation by family ties, 
and acquainted during all the course of His 
natural life, whose testimony might well be ac¬ 
cepted; aside from the peculiar fitness already 
referred to, the corroborated statement of all of 
them relative to their having seen Him in the 
upper room a few days after His crucifixion, 
when every precautionary measure had been 
taken for “fear of the Jews.” When the windows 
and the doors had all been so securely fast- 


THE CHURCH. 


15 


ened; when, lo! the Master, it is Jesus, comes 
into their midst, and with that ever memorable 
voice uttering His tender, comforting words: 
“Peace, peace.” This is indeed joy. “Peace 
be unto you.” And the entire Christian host 
believe this testimony, also the later statement 
of the Apostle Paul, who relates the testimony 
of over five hundred persons having seen Jesus. 

Here, then, is the doctrine of the resurrec¬ 
tion of Jesus Christ confirmed by full and suffi¬ 
cient testimony. The resurrection of Jesus 
Christ is a basal rock teaching of the Church, 
the sublime doctrine of the word, the central 
truth of the Christian hope around which all 
the foundation truths gather; the one glorious 
inspiration to the Church of God; the believer’s 
incentive to continue in “well-doing,” because 
“This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we 
are all witnesses.” “And if Christ be not raised, 
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is 
vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 

Christians of every shade of church life ac¬ 
cept the corroborated testimony of the witnesses 
in the persons named. And further, the narra¬ 
tion of the entire interval between the mirac¬ 
ulous appearing in the upper room to the ex- 


16 


THE CHURCH. 


traordinary scenes of the Mount of Olivet whilst 
they “beheld He was taken up,” for “behold, 
two men stood by them in white apparel,” etc. 

This glorious truth is also to be accepted; 
namely, the gracious Lord appearing in the 
same blessed spirit of Christian belief, without 
a shadow of doubt, and believers rejoice in the 
“hope of His appearing.” 

This remarkable truth of our Lord’s ascen¬ 
sion, however astounding the teaching may ap¬ 
pear, is the glorious crowning achievement of 
the triumphant Christ in His victorious con¬ 
quering over the grave, the sublime, comforting 
thought to the Christian, who now realizes in 
all its blessed fullness the majesty and might of 
the “Captain of our Salvation,” in bringing 
home many “sons to glory.” Here is joyous 
news to the Church; the Lord ascended into 
heaven. Her divine Founder, the Godman, 
seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
making intercession by the power of an endless 
life; ministering at an altar where no man hath 
ministered. Little wonder the disciples would 
love to linger on Mount Olivet, and gaze up into 
the spot from whence the Lord had ascended, 
hallowed thought through all time to the Church 


THE CHURCH. 


17 


of God. But tarry not; there is work to be ac¬ 
complished; the world needs thy service; the 
joyful news of His ascension and of His coming 
again; hence, “ye men of Galilee, why stand 
ye,” etc. 

Then, ah then, was the marked epoch; then 
they returned to Jerusalem, the seat, or the 
place where the Church was first organized; 
where they were to tarry until the. Comforter, 
the Guide, should come. Hence they returned 
to Jerusalem; and it was Jerusalem, the seat or 
place of the first location of the Church. Hot 
imperial Rome; oh no, not Rome, with its pre¬ 
tensions, hut at the old city of Jerusalem. The 
little company returned, and in that “upper 
room,” when the tarrying had all been consum¬ 
mated, so significant and suggestive to the Chris¬ 
tian ; when the company went as directed by their 
ascended Lord, continuing in prayer and sup¬ 
plication with the “women,” and Mary, the 
mother of Jesus, and with His brethren, com¬ 
forting one another with the remarkable yet 
blessed words of the Master’s promises continu¬ 
ing daily assembling in the Temple, and sang 
and gave praise to God; when lo! the time came, 
the Holy Ghost, the lively expected Comforter 


18 


THE CHUECH. 


appeared unto them, “cloven tongues like as of 
fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were 
all filled with the Holy Ghost,” etc. 

This, then, marks the dispensation of the Holy 
Spirit. The Comforter, the Guide, is come to 
assume the control and direction of the Church. 
All believers believe and rejoice in the day or 
age of the Holy Spirit; hence we note the dis¬ 
pensation of the Holy Spirit follows immediately 
after the season of tarrying is consummated by 
the little company. He comes as promised by 
the ascended Lord Christ, and coming, brings 
all the gracious love of the Godhead, being 
coequal with the Father and the Son in all the 
divine perfection, the same in substance, equal 
in power and glory, sublime in revelation of the 
perfection of grace, and His gracious office work 
in the guiding of the believer into all truth. 
“And when He is come He will reprove the 
world of sin, and of righteousness and of judg¬ 
ment. Of sin, because they believed not on 
Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father, 
and ye see Me no more; of judgment, because 
the Prince of this world is judged.” 

The Godhead of the Holy Spirit is very posi¬ 
tively taught in the Scripture, and His person- 


THE CHURCH. 


19 


ality equally asserted in very clear and explicit 
language; and further, the disciples were ex¬ 
pressly taught by the Lord in well-guarded ex¬ 
pressions of His desire not to expect the Holy 
Spirit to impart any information concerning His 
nature; hence the Gospel narration, “when He 
shall come He shall hot speak of Himself, He 
shall testify of Me, He shall glorify Me.” Thus 
the dispensation of the Holy Spirit is in a special 
manner a dispensation of witnessing in the 
Church of Christ Jesus, her Lord. His person¬ 
ality and divine agency is directed and concen¬ 
trated upon this particular work, to illuminate 
the mind and understanding of believers in all 
matters of faith and practice. 

The Church, then, is a company of men and 
women who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and in loving submission to the mind of the 
Spirit: simply a collection of persons who are 
witnessing by their lives and conversation the 
truth of their Lord, “till He come.” Again, 
meanwhile, the Holy Spirit leading them in all 
the truths of the kingdom. The Church, then, 
in its present and simplest meaning, is a local 
body of believers, holding the “truth as it is in 
Christ Jesus,” led of the Spirit, with the mutual 


20 


THE CHURCH. 


recognition of association held together by the 
one blessed Spirit in fraternal, associational love, 
holding to the “truth of the word.” Hence the 
Scriptural teaching does most emphatically de¬ 
clare the grace of the Holy Spirit is the one 
bond, uniting believers in the blessed hope by a 
close personal conviction of the presence of the 
Lord by the Spirit with His people, and all the 
vast and multiplied bodies of believers, irrespec¬ 
tive of names, are the Lord’s, and He is the 
foundation of their hope for salvation; the per¬ 
sonal conception of the believer of his Lord 
is a basal rock truth, and it was clearly and 
forcefully portrayed by a vivid and powerful 
adherence in the primitive Church. It char¬ 
acterizes their relations, one toward the other. 
“Let love dwell among you richly” was, to a 
marked degree, the norm standard of the early 
Church. They accepted the Spirit as the one 
efficient cause of the quickening of “those who 
are dead in trespasses and sins” to a new life; 
and further, it was accepted of them as that same 
Spirit revived those who became spiritually 
faint. The Church is in all its life a gathering 
of men and women for spiritual worship through 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, affirming that 


THE CHURCH. 


21 


the “letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life,” 
and that, although “Paul may plant and Apollos 
water, it is God that giveth the increase.” 
Christ, then, in continual and gracious touch 
with the believer, is the distinctive teaching. 
Oh, what an inspiration and incentive to Chris¬ 
tian activity! The one glorious, exalted Christ 
in the heavenly place, in loving sympathy with 
the Christian, amid all the changing scenes of 
this his militant career. This, then, is the doc¬ 
trine of the word, a personal and vivid concep¬ 
tion of the Lord. Never mind the so-called 
rough storms, or the boisterous billows of the 
world; the Captain is at the helm; He is the One 
familiar with the way; He has passed up and 
down through the rank and file; He is able to 
succor all; He is the Sanctifier, and does sanctify. 
He is “not ashamed to call them brethren,” etc. 
The entire body of believers, then, are brethren 
in the Lord, members of that mystical, as well 
as that visible body, the organized Church, and 
look forward to the time to come when there 
will be a universal Church on earth, taking on 
the outward and visible expression of life which 
the apostle to the Gentiles, that master in the 
Israel of our God, had in mind when he so 


22 


THE CHURCH. 


clearly tells us “the whole creation groaneth and 
travaileth in pain together until now.” The 
meanwhile she is being brought through “tribu¬ 
lation,” after having learned “experience” 
through her separation, in all its varied and di¬ 
versified forms. The visible Church of Jesus 
Christ is, notwithstanding to the contrary all 
the varied extremes, from the Ritualist to the 
meditative Quaker, the one grand embodiment 
of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and the 
prayer of her divine Founder, “that they may 
all be one,” is being answered through the pres¬ 
ence of the Holy Spirit, indwelling, leading the 
Church up and into the blessedness of her Re¬ 
deemer and her life. The unity of the body 
will be, and is fast becoming, as the glorious 
conception of a living Christ, by His Spirit, is 
in the soul, and the faith-life is strengthened by 
the Scriptures, which are able to make us “wise 
unto salvation.” 

This is the foundation, the life of God in the 
soul, the Holy Spirit ever present in the Church. 
How as through all ages, however marred and 
disfigured with creeds and confessions on the 
part of men, whose zeal and human frailty lead 
them to neglect to wait upon the Spirit’s mind 


THE CHURCH. 


23 


in their great haste to do the “business of the 
King” in their way, with the result that fierce 
fires of controversy were kindled, and unholy 
passion exhibited, and un-Christly temper dis¬ 
played, instead of bringing it to the altar and 
melting all the differences in the great crucible 
of Christian forbearance and love. Thus the 
Spirit leads all the affection and faith of man, 
and they will come more directly in contact with 
the original conception and idea of the renewed 
man, standing in grace, when the Scriptures are 
more fully received, and the ordinances of the 
word are accepted as in the days when the 
Church, in her youthful beauty and vigor, re¬ 
joiced in complete submission to her Lord’s ex¬ 
pressed command; and, may I say just here, no¬ 
where in the New Testament have we presented 
to our notice the introduction of the Scriptures 
in elementary forms. No body of divinity (so- 
called) which the Church, in whose judgment 
some portions seem to deem wise to present as a 
confession of faith, or a systematic creed, under 
the form of articles of religion. No catechism, 
which only serves for a day, and then changed 
on the morrow, because no man-made rule will 
meet the spiritual needs of men in its upward 


24 


THE CHURCH. 


and progressive stages of the soul in seeking 
God. Never mind how carefully drawn the prop¬ 
ositions, or how designated, a regular compen¬ 
dium of Christian doctrine, or rubrics, or canons; 
they all rise and fall within time’s current. But, 
on the contrary, the word, agreeable to divine 
wisdom, states the Holy Spirit is the interpreter, 
giving the Church a spiritual flow through the 
quickened life of the believer, “takes the things 
of Christ, and shows them unto us;” and thus 
shown, the believer sees how complete is his life 
in, by and with Christ, purified by His blood, 
sustained by His power, raised to be in exalted 
fellowship with Him. The Spirit leading by 
His marvelous manifestation, the Christian is 
now developing more and more into the blessed 
likeness of Him, who is seated at the right hand 
of the Majesty in the glory, and seeing all the 
triumphs of faith’s victory in the believer dur¬ 
ing the times of his tuition in “bringing many 
sons to glory.” 

It is the power of the living Word in the 
Church vitalizing and energizing its life. It 
stamps afresh the divine impress upon the soul, 
recreating it again in the image of God. Here 
is the work of applying the truth to make free 


THE CHURCH. 


25 


from the law of sin and death, convicting of sin, 
and taking it away, by putting it “out of the 
way,” unearthing it from its den in the human 
heart, displaying to the human mind all its of¬ 
fensiveness and repulsiveness, showing the ex¬ 
ceeding sinfulness. The Spirit, through the 
word, calling to remembrance that “God com- 
mandeth sin to be exceedingly sinful,” because 
the fleshly mind was not, nor cannot be, at peace 
with God; it was demonstrated was not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed could be, ever 
and always at “enmity against God,” being 
radically and diametrically opposed to the sove¬ 
reignty of the Lord; ever seeking as its aim the 
self-satisfaction, worshipping and pleasuring in 
the love of self in the room of God. 

This is a new discovery; the Spirit, through 
the word, makes known that the “outward man 
perisheth, but the inward man is renewed day by 
day,” and truth sees the “law was given by 
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ.” Sublime work; how significant the 
marvelous, gracious doings of the Lord by the 
Spirit in the Church is. This step upward and 
higher in the recreated development of the new 
creation, this blessed work, then, of the Spirit 


26 


THE CHURCH. 


in the believer enables him to avoid all the cold, 
doubtful, calculating process of intellectual 
weighing of the word of God, and thus freed 
from the barren, concrete statements that have 
ever been such a fruitful source of division, and 
so productive of bitter controversy, with its dire 
results. Further, the word teaches that the 
Lord Christ is a King, but not yet enthroned, 
and He came into the world not to establish a 
society in earth for the controversial discussion 
of the Gospel upon the basis of intellectual, 
scholastic discernment, however well intentioned 
by men in the schools of theology, but a king¬ 
dom on the contrary, and this kingdom is the 
Church of Christ, the embodiment of the king¬ 
dom of God in earth. Believers are of the 
kingdom, subjects of the expectant King, in the 
love of the truth; not in the love of the philos¬ 
ophy of theology, or the philosophy of an his¬ 
torical, controversial, semi-political organization 
so void of the Holy Spirit’s control. The Spirit 
discovers to the Church: “Behold, thy King 
cometh unto thee.” Thy King, but not yet en¬ 
throned ; a Prince exalted in the heavenly place, 
seated upon the Father’s throne; the heir-ap¬ 
parent, waiting in the attitude of blessed ex- 


THE CHURCH. 


27 


pectancy, when He shall sit upon His throne. 
Mark you, the now exalted Christ, the Prince 
and Saviour, is seated upon the Father’s throne, 
at the right hand of God, in glorious expecta¬ 
tion, until His subdued “enemies are made His 
footstool.” 

Then, oh then, the redeemed Church, the 
bride of the Lord, His inherited possessions, will 
sit upon His throne, sharing the glory of their 
crowned Lord in all the fullness of the kingdom. 
Here, then, is the inspiration and impetus to the 
continuing in “well doing.” The crown and 
the throne, the ever blessed reward the Lord, 
the righteous Judge, will give to the believer. 
Meanwhile the Lord, by the Spirit, is potentially 
dwelling in the heart of the believer, cheering, 
guiding, helping and sustaining for continual 
service in the witnessing to the truth in the 
body, the Church. Here, then, is the aim of 
the revelation and manifestation, the Epiphany 
of the Christ in all its stages. How the Spirit 
led the apostles into the joyous reception of this 
truth, that believers were brought into the life 
of the Christ, by truth and grace merged into, 
begotten by, a “lively hope.” Hope, however, 
not yet; but in the process of realization, be- 


28 


THE CHURCH. 


cause “it doth not vet appear what we shall be;” 
since in the Pauline teaching the believer’s 
life is a hid life, not yet made manifest, life 
hidden, “hid with Christ in God,” and will not 
be revealed until Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear. 

The Spirit, however, discovers to the believer 
the glorious pattern of the life to come, in all 
its precious newness, waiting in the Church with 
all believers for the adoption; to wit: the “re¬ 
demption of the body,” the spiritual body, the 
redeemed of the Lord, created anew. What a 
triumph—this humiliated, divided body, with 
all its diversified and outward complex differ¬ 
ence, to be a united body in Him, in true righte¬ 
ousness and holiness; Christ-like, one pure, sin¬ 
less, blessed, united body, the Church to come. 

May this thought suggest itself just here; a 
sublime, stupendous thought, when the Church 
shall* have put on the complete clothing of the 
Kedeemer’s furnishing, and all the man-made 
and man-conceived patterns are forever brushed 
aside, the Spirit bringing to our apprehension 
the unseen and eternal; the joys fulfilled in us 
with peace which is beyond our comprehension, 
and full of glory. This is what the body, the 


THE CHURCH. 


29 


Church, will be, and all glory to God is to be, 
when the King shall come to reign. 

Meanwhile the dispensation of the Holy 
Spirit is abiding “till He come” in the Church, 
illuminating the mind of the believer by using 
the word, giving unction to the worship, taking 
on the armor, using the sword of the word, both 
for offence and defence, in all the varied phases 
of its life, under diversities of operation; but 
the same Spirit working through its varied 
formulae of Church life. Hence brethren in 
the Lord may hold and cling tenaciously to cer¬ 
tain forms of doctrinal expression, to different 
Church order and government with its varied 
and, to the unrenewed mind, opposite positions, 
yet all verging “into Him who is all in all, 
blessed forever more.” 

In the calling of the disciples the Saviour was 
graciously pleased to call men of marked differ¬ 
ences in temperament. Compare John, the lov¬ 
able, with the impetuous Peter, yet both in grace 
of the blessed fellowship of Christ; and even 
after the Holy Ghost came upon the brethren, 
we note the great apostle to the Gentiles, who 
“withstood Peter to his face.” Here is a marked 
difference, yet brethren who ever continued with 


30 


THE CHUECH. 


those peculiar strong and marked traits of char¬ 
acter which ever characterizes those distin¬ 
guished servants of the Lord. Their strong, 
forceful, vigorous nature, though brought under 
the Spirit’s leading, ever maintained those dis¬ 
tinctive traits, so marked, yet so fruitful of 
blessed results to the Lord Christ’s coming king¬ 
dom on earth. 

Human nature, with its environment and its 
family association, does influence the coloring 
of the mind and the mental grasp of men even 
after the Holy Spirit takes possession of the 
heart. Like and dislike will come for certain 
outward and visible forms of expression, not¬ 
withstanding the beauty and simplicity of the 
faith-life in the soul. The mind, with its great 
capacities of attainment to apprehend knowl¬ 
edge so remarkable, will exercise, even though 
the Spirit’s work in the process of sanctifying, 
the believer in his affections. 

This life, then this life in Christ, or of Christ 
in the believer, with all the mighty forces at 
work, renewing the mind to become transformed 
“unto the likeness of the Christ mind, which 
will be finally changed into the image from 
glory to glory,” is the only life which should 


THE CHURCH. 


31 


/ 


find expression among believers. Here, then, 
is the breadth and scope of Christian charity as 
taught in the ethics of Scripture concerning the 
communion of saints, the exalted Christ, risen 
to minister at the altar by the power of His end¬ 
less life, brings the believers into holy and 
glorious fellowship, one with another; for the 
Apostle John declares, in such emphatic lan¬ 
guage, “he who dwells in love, dwells in God, 
and God in him; herein is our love made per¬ 
fect.” And the Lord Christ’s declaration, “a 
new commandment give I unto you that ye love 
one another.” 

This love principle, which reflects the mind of 
the Lord concerning believers in their attitude 
toward one another in “love preferring one an¬ 
other.” How, if this “Jesus’ mind” was inquired 
into and led by the Holy Spirit, room or scope 
broad enough would be had for the exercise of 
the gracious recognition of each brother in the 
Lord, irrespective of the Church polity he may 
assume to identify, or affiliate with; and this all 
believers will agree to, that the Church, in its 
object and aim, is the restoration of man to the 
glory of God his Maker, and its life must desire 
the highest possible order of Christian forbear- 


32 


THE CHURCH. 


ance and charity as the fittest concomitant of its 
harmonious exercise, and this noble order of life 
only can possibly exist in a spiritual kingdom, 
such a kingdom as the Lord would establish 
among believers, an ideal of sublime blessedness, 
with the bond of peace uniting in holy, fra¬ 
ternal, associational fellowship, with sympathiz¬ 
ing love toward the brethren. Again, remem¬ 
bering the same Spirit, through the diversity of 
operation, “as leading them all notwithstanding 
their differences and infirmities; it is through 
the unifying of the Holy Spirit, becoming the 
one Church, having the glory of God, and her 
light like unto a stone most precious, even like 
a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” 

This the Church shall be, and is fast becom¬ 
ing; she will rise and shine in all her beauty, 
the bride of Christ. “I am my beloved’s, and 
His desire is toward me.” “God is in the midst 
of her, she shall not be moved.” “God shall 
help her, and that right early.” This, then, is 
the Church; and though she may have many 
densified forms, yet she does exist, and is visible, 
a body of many members, whose existence as the 
body of the Lord Christ, in its fullest sense, will 
be fully realized to the ever spiritually discern- 


THE CHURCH. 


33 


ing. She may appear as a fragmentary, dislo¬ 
cated, dismantled, broken body, and, to the 
world, her ever active opponent, she is funda¬ 
mentally and hopelessly separated by her in¬ 
ternal and external division. 

The Church, then, is a body of baptized be¬ 
lievers, and its life, agreeable to the wisdom of 
her Founder, is to be a process of development, 
rather than an act. It was first the Gospel seed 
to be planted, then afterward the fruitage. The 
germ of spiritual life is to be implanted in man; 
his nature is to be changed by the grace of the 
Spirit, to develop and grow up into an holy 
temple of the Lord. Hear the word declara¬ 
tion: “Ye also, as lively stones are built up a 
spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ,” and 
“are built upon the foundation of the apostles 
and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the 
chief corner-stone; in whom all the building, 
fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy tem¬ 
ple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded 
together for an habitation of God, through the 
Spirit.” Hence the language of the “word” is 
in perfect agreement with the process of develop¬ 
ment. “Upbuilding” is progression, and the 


34 


THE CHURCH. 


Church life is now in the progressive stages of 
development. The faith-life in the believer, 
planted in him, is nurtured by the Holy Spirit, 
enabling him to behold the invisible things,” 
because the eye in naan’s spirit, which is now 
purged from all the benumbed paralysis which 
had beclouded his mental sky. He now sees 
clearly because the nerves of his faith faculty are 
restored, and he does not any longer look upon 
the Church as the hopelessly separated, dis¬ 
jointed gatherings of men and women in hostile 
array against one another, but to the contrary, 
beholding the gracious dealings of the Holy 
Spirit, calling out from the world “the Lord’s 
elect” from all nations and kindred and tribes. 
A regenerated humanity, the recreated man, 
who is in the blessed unity of the Spirit, is 
striving toward the norm standard which our 
divine Lord raised for all believers. The Holy 
Ghost, the invisible, indwelling force represent¬ 
ing Christ the Lord, revealing the Father’s love, 
comforting and guiding the Christian through¬ 
out all his militant career; dwelling in the 
human nature, which Jesus Christ honored by 
joining His Godhead in His own person, raised 
a God-man into the heavenly places, thus restor- 


THE CHURCn. 


35 


ing man to the divine favor, bringing back to the 
right balance, the true poise of man in his right 
relation to God, redeeming him from his sins. 
Believers are dwelling in the heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus, by the Spirit, and thus they behold 
all things fulfilled in Him, “who is the Head of 
the body, the Church;” “who is the image of 
the invisible God, the first-born of every crea¬ 
ture.” 

Meanwhile the Holy Spirit brings the light 
into the quickened soul, leading and developing 
the recreated man in all the blessed fullness of 
the renewed nature, in all the stages of develop¬ 
ment from the new-born “babe in Christ,” ap¬ 
plying the sincere milk of the word throughout 
its progressive advancement in growth, until he 
becomes a perfect man, reaching unto the “meas¬ 
ure of the fullness of Christ.” 

The Church, in its external and visible life, is 
forcibly portrayed in the “man-life” from the 
child to youth, in all its vigor and beauty, down 
to its maturity. Hence the Pauline epistles 
show the tuition, the schooling of the believer, 
and the need for the perfection of Christians, 
and their edification in the Church by the 
“manifold wisdom of God,” by their “endeavor- 


36 


THE CHURCH. 


ing to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond 
of peace.” “There is one body and one spirit, 
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. 
One God, one faith, one baptism; one God and 
Father of all,” etc., and the blessed unity of the 
Church of the Lord Christ among believers. 
The company of the Lord’s gracious choosing 
will be, and must become, under the blessed 
unification of the Spirit, one unalterable, in¬ 
separably one, one body. Admit the stages of 
development by the Spirit brooding in the 
Church in all His love, as witnessed in the first 
creation, when the eternal God brought order 
out of chaos,—so, in like manner, the second 
creation. The redeemed Church, through the 
Spirit, will bring forth a people unto the Lord. 
Yes, a people unto the Lord, who are now be¬ 
coming the “sons of God;” disciples, learners of 
the mind of Christ in the school under tuition, 
learning “experience,” acting and doing childish 
things, experimenting with creeds, dogmas, con¬ 
fessions and external observances of the man- 
patterned conception; but even whilst these 
childish things are in vogue, the Spirit is lead¬ 
ing out of the deep labyrinth, ofttimes wading 
farther out upon the great ocean tides of “so- 


THE CHURCH. 


37 


called ornate worship,” but ever steering toward 
the time when the Church shall put away the 
toys of childhood, and forget the childish play¬ 
things, consigning them to be numbered as of 
the past; simply freaks of child doings, when a 
child to speak as a child, to do as children; but 
when developed through grace unto the full 
stature of manhood in Christ Jesus, then, and 
then only, that which is imperfect will be done 
away, and the Church will come forth in all the 
united strength and beauty, in her fully devel¬ 
oped life, matured, and in the expectant atti¬ 
tude of seeing the manifestation of many sons 
of glory in all their renewed relations. 

This, then, is the Spirit’s work in the Church 
in all its functions, continuing ever present to 
fulfill until shall appear “the Master, the Bride¬ 
groom,” “the second time without sin unto salva¬ 
tion.” Then the bride, in all her bridal array, 
shall in blessed unity, in love, be joined in the 
glorious, heavenly union with the Lord Christ. 
The thought, to the believer, of the time when 
the Church, which is now in all its scattered and 
multiplied formula, shall cease, and be returned 
to the unity which characterized her on the 
Pentecostal day, is certainly a blessed, enraptur- 


38 


THE CHURCH. 


ing thought for the believer’s contemplation. 
When the day shall dawn upon Christendom, 
and the Church, arrayed in all the beauty of her 
bridal attire, going forth to meet the coming 
Bridegroom, the “fairest of the fair, and the 
one altogether lovely,” “the chief among ten 
thousand.” This is to be. What a sublime 
thought! To behold, and to be numbered with, 
this glorious company, the redeemed of the 
Lord, in precious unity of the Spirit, and the 
bond of peace. 

This is what Isaiah, the lofty, poetical, in¬ 
spiring prophet of Israel, foretold: “Her days 
of mourning will be ended, and when she will 
return to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy 
will be upon her head.” This will be the 
Church when relieved of all the separating ele¬ 
ments of discord and unrest, which, alas! have 
been only too conspicuous during the varied 
stages of her “widowed life.” The Holy Spirit, 
the Comforter, is bringing the Church into lov¬ 
ing relation by revealing to the mind’s eye of 
the believer the “truth as it is in Jesus,” behold¬ 
ing in the blessed fulfilment of the kingdom, all 
the promises fulfilled, and the religion of his 
Lord is adapted to “all sorts and conditions” of 


THE CnURCH. 


39 


men, who will come under the “yoke of Christ.” 
The law finished, the prophets’ course ended, 
grace dwelling in the Church by the Spirit’s in¬ 
dwelling in the believer. 

Here, then, is the Church a company of men 
and women who are the “called according to 
His purpose in grace,” to become witnesses of 
the manifold wisdom of God, who, by the gra¬ 
cious providence of the Lord, are to lead, under 
the guidance of the Spirit, in their testimony to 
the saving efficacy of the Gospel in the redemp¬ 
tion of souls. This, then, is the distinctive work 
of the Church, the witnessing of the power of 
the precious blood of Christ to cleanse from all 
sin. The joyous, blessed, living, experimental 
possession of “faith working by love,” to the rec¬ 
onciliation of man to God, and purifying him 
from all unrighteousness, taking away all the 
offensive sinfulness of his being, and bringing 
him back into true and blessed communion, en¬ 
abling him to say again, “Abba, Father,” by the 
Spirit. To “know God and Jesus Christ whom 
He hath sent.” This, then, is the sphere of the 
believer’s growth in the Church, striving toward 
the mark or pattern which the Lord gave when 
He uttered those memorable words: “Love one 




40 


THE CHURCH. 


another;” the love process working in the be¬ 
liever; those life-giving germs which crowd out 
all the undergrowth of contention, division and 
separation, producing the pure unity in love; 
universality and spirituality of the Church as 
designed by her Founder. The universal broth¬ 
erhood of the redeemed man, that goal to which 
all believers look forward with such eager and 
lively anticipation, will be hastened by the be¬ 
lievers living in the spirit, as well as in the form, 
of their prayer. We can hasten or retard the 
glorious realization of the unity of the Church 
militant by assisting in the grace of Christian 
charity, one toward the other, in the spirit of 
the Master, “with being willing to forgive, and 
ready at all times for reconciliation,” and thus 
fulfill the “law of Christ.” 

This, then, should be the attitude of the be¬ 
liever in his relation with his fellow Christians, 
reaching unto the measure of the fullness of 
Christ his Lord, showing the inward principle, 
the invisible condition of associational or Church 
life. The grace, or love principle controlling 
every question of difference, relative to outward 
and external forms of worship. 

The early, or what is now called by common 


THE CHUKCH. 


41 


consent the Apostolic Church, had in her midst 
those men who had received the gracious “in- 
duement of the Holy Spirit” in a marked and 
special manner; hence they were fully equipped 
for the separatings of the now spiritual worship 
of the a new order of things” from the old 
system, which preceded it with its rights and 
ceremonies, with its law and prophets and all its 
detailed minutiae. They were then honored of 
the Holy Ghost, and did discern that the king¬ 
dom of the Lord Christ was to be free from the 
decaying elements of all the old external forms, 
and was to be free in its manner of outward and 
visible expression, under the tuition of the 
Spirit’s guidance; the partition which had stood 
so long in racial contrast was to be broken down, 
and the hated Gentile, with all his gross idola¬ 
try, was to be brought into brotherly relation 
with the malice nurturing Jew, so that both Jew 
and Gentile might become one in blessed union 
in love. “Putting on the new man, which is 
renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him 
that created him; where there is neither Greek 
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, bar¬ 
barian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is 
all in all.” 


42 


THE CHURCH. 


The Christ life in the believer, as expressed in 
the Gospel, breaks down racial, tribal, and all 
the other separating causes estranging man from 
his fellow man; hence the kingdom will become 
a glorious kingdom, composed of them taken out 
of every nation, “the called out” unto Him, 
broad as the universe, high as the heavens, grand 
as God in His purposes in grace toward us in 
Christ Jesus. The processes of the Spirit’s work 
in the believer meanwhile going on, unfolding 
and revealing to the gaze of the new man the 
sublime truth that Christ, the second Adam, has 
appeared, breaking down the middle wall of par¬ 
tition, bringing into the “new creation” a re¬ 
generated humanity, leading the believer to 
know that the eternal God is the God of genera¬ 
tion and, in an especial sense, the God of re¬ 
generation; and thus led, the regenerated man 
can, and does, behold his Lord, fulfilling in His 
glorious person all the desirable graces, and sup¬ 
plying the different functions which man, in his 
school days, under the Sianic tuition, had 
learned. They had been concealed by the 
shadow of type and ceremonials; but “God, who 
at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in 
times past unto the father by the prophets, hath 


THE CHURCH. 


43 


in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” 
The blessed antitype, who fulfilled the threefold 
function of prophet, priest and king, has ap¬ 
peared, and sets the seal of His approval upon 
the Church by His Spirit. “For all power in 
heaven and in earth is given unto Him who is 
blessed evermore.” 


CHAPTER II. 

DOVE, THE IDENTIFYING DAW OF THE CHURCH. 

John xiii: 34, 35. —A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love 
one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 

By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, ip ye have 
love one to another. 

John xv : 12. — This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as 
I have loved you. 

Love is the identifying law of the kingdom of 
Christ. It is denominated the new command¬ 
ment of the Christian economy. Hence the im¬ 
portance to each member individually, and to 
the entire body collectively, to the love principle 
ruling the affection. As in the natural world, 
obedience to natural laws is of advantage to him 
who obeys, and the opposite if disobeyed, so in 
the spiritual kingdom (the same is true. 

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is 
of God, and every one that loveth is of God and 
knoweth God;” “he that loveth not, knoweth 
not God, for God is love.” This, of necessity, 
means that believers, possessing the joyous, 
experimental faith principle, “working by love.” 
The great test of the believer’s new birth, agree¬ 
able to the Pauline theology, strengthened by 
mutual dependence and influenced by the “law 
44 


THE CHURCH. 


45 


of Christ.” Every believer is under the law of 
love, taken up into the universal design of the 
manyfold grace of God. “He that wathereth 
shall himself also be watered,” is the key-note, 
sounding clear and distinct throughout all the 
purposes of the divine administration; a law 
through which the gracious streams of blessed 
beneficence are kept like the water of the great 
ocean, in perpetual circulation, and just as sure 
to revisit its source, and an unfailing law as 
sublime as the infinite Founder of the Church, 
“who for the joy which was set before Him, He, 
the Son of God, endured the cross, despising the 
shame.” There was the love principle expressed 
by our Lord, the sacrifice, and through this the 
believer, in his renewed life, can understand 
“what the Spirit saith” concerning his giving; 
the transforming power in the Church by re¬ 
flecting the Christ-life in every relation of the 
Christian with his fellow Christian; fulfilling 
the blessed function of shining as lights in the 
world; individually they may have but a small 
influence, and the sphere of their life-giving rays 
may possibly be very contracted and narrow; 
yet, however narrow and contracted individually, 
when united they become mighty, sending out 


46 


THE CHUKCH. 


the bright, effulgent light, brightening and 
fructifying with its radiance like unto the great 
Sun of Righteousness. Jesus Christ is the 
center of the Church, and around and about 
Him all believers gather, the entire collected 
body with all its many members, collected and 
concentrated into a focus, enabling each to stand 
under its salutary and transforming influence; 
giving room for the generous exercise of sym¬ 
pathy, forbearance and holy emulation. How¬ 
ever small and insignificant the light may ap¬ 
pear, with all the frailty and weakness of con¬ 
centrated shortcomings, burdened with the 
“mixed multitude which has entered her fold” 
and dampened her ardor, by throwing the cool 
chill of subtile sophistry into the lap of faith; 
yet notwithstanding, the believer is supported, 
and his courage animated by the presence of the 
believing host; though ofttimes he does realize, 
in the Pauline expression, “least of all saints,” 
he is a vital member of an organized body, 
united or allied to Christ, the living Head, and 
through Him, identified with all the fullness of 
His excellence, and thus led, beholds the blessed 
principle of mutual dependence and reciprocal 
influence, holding in love the “communion of 


( 


THE CHURCH. 47 

tlie saints,” striving to exalt in piety the body by 
holy activity. 

How much, then, should Christians “emulate 
each other in the Lord,” and stand in the unity 
of the Spirit, pressing toward the mark in bold, 
bright relief against all the darkened attacks of 
the cold, skeptical separatist, because “the wis¬ 
dom that is from above is first pure, then peace¬ 
able, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of 
mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness 
sown in peace of them that make peace.” Be¬ 
lievers, then, acquire a “wisdom from above,” 
which is vastly superior to all worldly and man- 
evolved, earthly notions of wisdom, however 
much men may laud and extol their schools of 
philosophy in all their varied attainments. “For 
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with 
God.” Hence, as a body, the Church is raised 
into a free and independent possession of a wis¬ 
dom of a higher order of enjoyment and power, 
furnished from on high. The believer, or the 
Church, is a living representative of another 
world, and not of this world, deriving its life 
sustenance from a superior source. To all the 
created surroundings the Christ-life is made unto 


48 


THE CHUECH. 


her “all and in all.” For the Christian ignor¬ 
ance there is knowledge; for the unwisdom there 
is guidance; for suffering there is glory. All 
these blessings are in Jesus Christ, the Lord, for 
He is made unto us “wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification and redemption.” Made unto this 
glorious truth in the Church is the blessed, ac¬ 
tive work of salvation by the Spirit, discovering 
to the believer right relation to God as Father, 
and toward another “blessed in the Lord.” 

How important, then, it is to every member 
of the body to “come out from the world, and to 
be separated; to love not the things of the world, 
to set their affections on things above.” The 
Church is a separated spciety of men and women, 
“called out,” and being made ready, by constant 
communication, not occasional, at certain inter¬ 
vals, or stated so-called times of humiliation, and 
confession; but, on the contrary, in the blessed 
exercise of a living, experimental growth in grace 
and knowledge of God. Hot a stagnant, nor a 
spasmodic starting, and then only to begin again. 
Oh no; but in the joyous, spiritual development, 
being in the ever constant, progressive stage of 
uptreading, whilst “being created anew after the 
image of Him who created it,” in knowledge, 


THE CHURCH. 


49 


righteousness and true holiness. Being trans¬ 
formed and patterned after the likeness of the 
“body of His glory.” The believer, in his life 
in the Church militant, is the visible pattern of 
his resurrected Lord; for this reason, if for none 
other, great and well guarded care should be 
exercised that no offence be given or taken, no 
barrier placed to obstruct the Spirit’s work in 
the unification of the body. Admit, the Church 
# militant to be incomplete in its outward, external 
and visible expression, may it not be born with 
the better “grace of Christian charity,” enabling 
the believer to see his fellow believer, not as he 
is, or appears to be, but what he shall and will 
finally become—the redeemed man, recreated, 
with all the faculties of his being brought into 
harmony in the highest and noblest sense with 
God, the Eternal, his Maker? This is what the 
apostle beheld in those companies of Christians 
to whom he wrote the epistles, “called saints,” 
and addressing them by the sublimest appella¬ 
tion, Saints. Hot that they had attained al¬ 
ready, but under the Spirit’s illumination he dis¬ 
cerned them as already “saints of the Lord,” 
exalted in Christ Jesus. 

Look at the early Church; witness that group 


50 


THE CHURCH. 


of men and women who had been brought into 
Rome from Jerusalem, prisoners in Nero’s 
household, that great tyrant, whose very name 
was a terror. They, of all men, appeared to be 
the very least of what should be “saints,” 
humanly speaking; yet, under the gracious 
providence of the all-wise Father, those very 
men and women were the constituent members 
of the visible local body, the Church. “Hath 
not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in 
faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath 
promised to them that love Him?” Those very 
men and women, prisoners at Rome, were will¬ 
ing to give up all things for Christ’s sake, taking 
joyfully the spoiling of their goods. They had 
the joyous, experimental possession of the faith- 
life, uniting them in blessed, federate love in 
the bond of peace—the Holy Spirit operating 
upon their affection in the fullest development, 
“looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ 
unto eternal life.” The atmosphere all about 
them was freighted with apprehension; yet they 
were free in the blessed, spiritual sense; no 
chain, no dungeon wall, however dark, could 
stifle their spiritual development. The unity 
of the faith principle was a most holy growth. 




THfi CHUECH. 


51 


Their environment, however uncongenial, could 
not dampen their ardor. They looked not at 
Calvary with the cross. Calvary’s work was 
completed,—the intercession now is made, but 
they looked to the throne in the heavenly 
place, where the risen Lord was seated, making 
intercession for them.” They remembered 
their great High Priest that had passed into 
the heavens, “the Lamb of God, slain from 
the foundation of the world, but manifested in 
these latter times for you who, by Him, do be¬ 
lieve in God that raised Him up, and gave Him 
the glory, that your faith and hope might be in 
God. Hot in the unity of externals in all the 
varied, outward formulae, but in the blessed 
unity of the Spirit, in His presentation of the 
truth, binding their hearts together in the es¬ 
sentials of the doctrine of grace. Their eyes 
were opened to apprehend the unseen and 
eternal. Though troubled on all sides of the 
corporeal man, they rejoiced in the Spirit while 
tasting of the “peace which passeth understand¬ 
ing, and the joy which is unspeakable and full 
of glory.” 

Hence the necessity of patience to reflect the 
varied character and tendencies of the human 


52 


THE CHURCH. 


spirit, striving after a purer ideal. It might 
possibly be suggested that the renewed man 
would be freed from all his prior colorings and 
peculiarities; but such is not the case. However 
much it may be desired, the old nature in the 
believer does continue to send out its shoots from 
the old sap-life, and this is the one ground of all 
the causes of diversity in the sphere of its opera¬ 
tion against the renewed mind, to “prove what 
is that good and acceptable and perfect will of 
God.” The will of God is that the believer 
should overcome the old nature from ever again 
producing seed, and thereby be enabled to reap 
the harvest, by sowing discord in the body of the 
Church, causing the saddening spectacle of di¬ 
vision and all the great catalogue in its train, 
which, alas! is only too often encouraged by pro¬ 
fessors of religion. But the day is fast appear¬ 
ing when the dawn of a better era will burst 
upon the Church, and she will be free from all 
the frailties of man’s control, with his poor, 
human, superstitious intermixture; and thus 
freed, the Church will shine with transparent 
lustre and uncolored radiance of universal pur¬ 
ity. The base and cement of Church unity is 
the Christ-love. Notice the properties of His 



THE CHURCH. 


53 


love, in order that we may more fully appro¬ 
priate it by the conforming of our love to its 
standard. His was real and great affection, not 
merely nominal. This is expressed in “love not 
in word and tongue only, but also in deed and 
in truth.” His love was free and disinterested, 
without any regard to our deserts; so Christians 
should love one another, independent of any re¬ 
gard to the personal advantage. The motor 
power was love of forbearance and forgiveness; 
a pure spiritual flame; not loving them because 
they were lovable or commendable, not as ra¬ 
tional creatures only, but as the especial objects 
of divine affection, subject of divine likeness, 
unchanged and unchanging, ever continued 
toward the believer; notwithstanding their vacil¬ 
lating and erring weaknesses, He draws about 
them the cords of love, binding them to Him¬ 
self. Believers should emulate the Lord. The 
apostolic companies had continually enjoined 
upon them the Master’s wish that they continue 
in love. This distinguishing grace, so import¬ 
ant, was ever taught by the apostles, and so con¬ 
spicuous was the love principle that it marked 
their conduct. It was expressed in actions so 
replete with noble, disinterested and heroic affec- 


54 


THE CHURCH. 


tion as to become a proverb with surrounding 
pagans, who called forth the well-known ex¬ 
clamation, “look,” “see,” how these Christians 
love one another. What a magnificent testi¬ 
mony for the early Christian. Could it be pos¬ 
sible for a grander eulogism to be pronounced 
on them as a company of believers? Never in 
its history has the Church received a tribute so 
valuable—the casket of grace never contained 
a jewel of such exquisite beauty, to shine with 
more precious lustre, sending down the stream 
of time its illuminating rays of blessed, fraternal 
love, like a glorious sheen. Theirs was true 
complacency, the very essence of love. They 
recognized the grand foundation upon which all 
right complacency in the believer should rest; 
they had patterned after Christ, and there they 
obtained the right conception of their relation 
and likeness to God. They saw every member 
of the body, a fellow heir of grace, partakers of 
like precious faith, and joint sharers of the com¬ 
mon salvation, held dear to each other as the 
objects of the sovereign mercy of the heavenly 
Father, and of the Lord Christ’s dying love, and 
the blessed Holy Spirit’s sanctifying power. 

It was not the mere love tie of consanguinity, 


THE CHURCH. 


55 


or friendship, or general esteem, or interest; oh 
no! but on the contrary, it was “loving one an¬ 
other for Christ’s sake,” on the common ground 
of their relationship to Christ, and for His sake 
they delighted in each other as “being in Him.” 
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil 
the law of Christ.” Love, then, which is the 
central attribute of the divine nature, is also the 
central principle of His Church; around this im¬ 
mutable principle all the other principles and 
attributes of the Church life must cluster and 
flow forward continuously and in blessed har¬ 
monious love toward the brethren. 

It has ever been held as the test principle by 
which the world, outside of the Church life, bears 
testimony to the bond, binding and uniting in 
fellowship as no other society of men and women 
is bound together, in mutual love, advancing 
toward the unity of faith and knowledge by the 
constant recognition of the Christ, which is to 
be the full perfection of the nature, the measure 
of the stature of the fullness of her risen Re¬ 
deemer. The recognition of the Christ-love 
principle in the believer goes deeper and broader 
than the mere outward and visible unity, or 
agreeing in the external, which, to the Church, 


56 


THE CHURCH. 


is but a passing circumstance compared to the 
unity of the true spiritual conception of the 
faith “life in God.” Because prophecy, which 
will fail; the tongue, which will cease; or the 
“knowledge, which will vanish away,” this prin¬ 
ciple is working forward in continual growth, 
and in endless progress toward the goal, the final 
and ultimate terminus, “charity never faileth.” 
Creeds, dogmas, and all other man-made rules 
fail, but “charity never faileth;” and in this 
particular it is so suggestive to the believer to 
keep in close touch with the word, and thus 
kept free from all the pollutions and stains of 
the fleshly mind, vainly puffed up, which have 
arrogated to the man-made pattern of lording it 
over God’s heritage. There cannot be masters 
or lords in the Church, because “One is the 
Master, even Christ,” and all believers are in 
bonded unity with Him. Observe that the word 
informs us that, running all through the patri- 
archial times, Mosaism, and the period of the 
prophets, there was but one unchanging purpose 
of love, the one covenant, even the sure “mercies 
of David,” the everlasting covenant. This un¬ 
changeable purpose of grace did, and may, as¬ 
sume different forms, and displayed by various 



THE CHURCH. 


57 


externals in its operation, but the one unerring 
plan of unchangeable love, working under any 
and all its phases, was a marked, distinguishing, 
characteristic to every people and nation, kin¬ 
dred and tongue, however widely they may be 
separated by tribal relation. It was the one 
God in love, the all-Father, God of Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob. 

To what extent did this same principle operate 
in the immediate Church? Love was the pre¬ 
dominating characteristic of the primitive Chris¬ 
tian. Never mind how far separated and scat¬ 
tered, there was the blessed unity in love recog¬ 
nizing one God, one Lord and Saviour, one faith 
and one baptism—one family in heaven and on 
earth, joined to the great all-Father, of which, 
individually, they were members, each occupy¬ 
ing a place in the body. This unity was not 
violated in any sense, but, on the contrary, was 
graciously enriched and diversified, by all the 
many changed varieties of place and custom; 
but, “receiving with meekness the ingrafted 
word, which is able to save your souls, that the 
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur¬ 
nished unto all good works.” Hence the rela¬ 
tion of the individual Christian is often reiter- 


58 


THE CHURCH. 


ated—One is to be his Master, even Christ, and 
all members are to be brethren. The blessed 
Lord, by the Spirit, is to reveal to him the will 
of God, to be, through all his militant career, 
the only Mediator and Priest, as between him 
and God, and to be the Ruler and Supreme Ob¬ 
ject of his life, giving him the grace, enabling 
him to conform to the great fundamental rule of 
“love to the brethren,” and a broad margin for 
the free and generous exercise of wisdom and 
prudence in all questions affecting the outward 
Church organism. 

~No one can read the Acts, and the Pauline 
Epistles, with unprejudiced mind without notic¬ 
ing how vigorous and continual the liberty prin¬ 
ciples of the dispensation of the Spirit are en¬ 
forced. The early teachers were guarded and 
exceedingly careful in their statements of the 
essential doctrine of faith and practice, and gave 
explicit direction for their observance, remind¬ 
ing the Christian converts of the blessings that 
would flow from a “ conscience void of offence.” 
The Apostle Paul gave minute detail in all mat¬ 
ter for the regulation of the family, the home, 
the care of children, relation of master and serv¬ 
ant, husband and wife, and ever admonished 


THE CHURCH. 


59 


Christians to exercise charity in conduct and 
judgment. They were exceedingly careful to 
warn against false teachers, and gave well de¬ 
fined rules, by which the false could be detected 
from the true, and ever set before them the in¬ 
fallible guide in all their relations and duties of 
life. Hence the sign-board of all the apostolic 
teachings ever pointed the believer to “looking 
unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our 
faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, 
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 
Believers are safe, and only safe, whilst looking 
unto Jesus, whom they can ever imitate with 
safety. And further, Christians are admon¬ 
ished to imitate wherever imitation is possible. 
He, the Lord Christ, is the divine Model, the 
Appointed One, the “same Jesus” who hath “left 
us an example that we should follow His steps,” 
and following the footprints of the Christ is the 
only true pathway for the believer. Apostle or 
teacher cannot be followed only so far as they 
follow the Christ. “Be ye followers of me, as I 
am of Christ,” is the ringing declaration of the 
apostle. Imitators of Christ, not of synods or 
conferences, or modem schools of theology, but 


60 


THE CHURCH. 


of Christ. Ho system of reasoning will ever 
suffice for the blessed continued presence of the 
Holy Spirit. This was the ground upon which 
the early Christian stood, rallying and cheering 
each other on the way when exposed to the cruel 
torture while exhibited in the arena. They 
were the admired of the Roman populace be¬ 
cause of the unselfish love toward each other, 
exhibiting the Christ-like spirit under the sorest 
and most perplexing trials. This love principle 
contrasted wonderfully with the crowd that had 
been accustomed to the witnessing of the im- 
bruted and selfish mammon. The Roman glad¬ 
iator was ever on the alert for self-protection, 
but the now new company of prisoners brought 
into Hero’s domain are not so much concerned 
about this life as they were concerned about the 
one all-absorbing witnessing to the “truth as it 
is in Jesus,” “to make known the manifold wis¬ 
dom of the grace of God.” Theirs was no great 
concern about abstract theories or opinion as to 
position in prayer—it was immaterial to them. 
They lost no time about striving for the mere 
externals; the cold, narrow particularism, which 
have done such incalculable harm, impeding the 
progress of the Gospel news to “every creature.” 



THE CHURCH. 


61 


The old controversial spirit of the circumcision, 
and the uncircumcision, which the Apostle Paul 
settled so ably, once and for all, denouncing it 
as nothing and unavailing when compared to the 
love principle, working in the believer to the 
development and growth of the new creature. 
The diversity of operation of the Spirit did not 
in any wise destroy the blessed unity of their 
common faith in their risen Lord. The acci¬ 
dentals and incidentals were of small moment in 
contrast to their possession of the “root of the 
matter,” because “by one Spirit we are all bap¬ 
tized into one body, whether we be Jews or 
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have 
been all made to drink into one Spirit.” “There 
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called 
in one hope of your calling.” Not called into 
sects for the intellectual interpretation of the 
word, agreeable to their understanding, to 
square the points of the eternal verities accord¬ 
ing to man-made conceptions, by setting aside 
the spiritual life and testimony of their fellows, 
treating them as heathen men and publicans. 
This is the offspring of superstition generated by 
the darkened shades of fear and unbelief, the 
old yoke of bondage which follows after the 


62 


THE CHURCH. 


“beggarly elements.” It savors of the unre- 
newed man, with his combination, whose prin¬ 
ciples are diametrically opposed to the liberty of 
the Gospel; and it was to this condition of life 
the Apostle urges the Galatians when he wrote, 
“Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled 
again with the yoke of bondage.” The “en¬ 
tanglements” have ever been in the forefront in 
opposition to the blessed unification of the 
Spirit’s work in the visible Church. The “Shib¬ 
boleth” of denominationalism, with its baneful 
temporizing, has ever wrought serious injury 
to the spiritual development of the Church mil¬ 
itant. 

The blessed truths of the Gospel grace may 
be expressed under a variety of forms to meet 
different minds, adapted to the several capabil¬ 
ities, without any impairment to their essential 
properties. Truths of the word written may be 
presented to the mind’s eye by symbol, by 
prophecy, or in the figurative expression, as by 
types, or in the literal naked sense; but in any 
and all forms, the scope of the love principle 
should predominate. Forms of expression may 
and do change, but the great underlying, basal, 



THE CHURCH. 


63 


rock foundation of the Church is unchangeable, 
gloriously settled in Him—her life, her “all and 
in all.” It mattered not if sheltered by the 
blood sprinkled upon the lintel, or the cloud 
which continued with them “day by day,” or the 
blood shed upon Golgotha’s brow, the blood of 
His cross. It is all adapted to meet the many 
phases of the many-sided views of man’s organ¬ 
ism, or man’s consciousness. “If ye will obey 
My voice indeed, and will keep My covenant, 
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me, 
above all people.” This is the great cardinal 
idea, to be in covenant relation with God. “By 
grace are ye saved,” not by the visible forms of 
Churchianitv in their multitudinous array of 
ceremonial formulae, but in the blessed unity of 
the “Spirit and the bond of peace.” 

Truths, which ofttimes appear so very com¬ 
plex, and may ofttimes admit of much modifica¬ 
tion in the outward expression to different 
minds, of different coloring or hue to one brother 
in the Lord may appear transparent and clear as 
crystal, to another brother clouded, because of 
the narrow grasp of the spiritual discernment; 
but in each case it is the same unchanged and 
unchangeable truth; one truth in essence, 


64 


THE CHURCH. 


changeless as God, yet, strange to relate, mani¬ 
fold and variable in its application, meeting 
every requirement of man’s being, bis reason¬ 
ing faculties, bis faitb, bis affection, bis duties; 
admit this, and believers could rejoice in the 
fullness of the blessed hope. “Why, even of 
yourselves judge ye not what is right.” Hence 
the distinction and difference relative to the 
great truths of God, constituting the very basis 
and essence of the Church life, and the varied 
and changeable methods of expression or mani¬ 
festation in order to meet the changing condi¬ 
tions of men. The Spirit enables the Christian 
to come into perfect agreement with his fellow 
Christian by submission and conformity to the 
will of God. It is the “Spirit also helpeth our 
infirmities, for we know not what we should 
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself 
maketh intercession for us, according to the will 
of God.” The Spirit reveals the every need to 
the believer of the essentials and loving kindness 
of the Father. The exceeding greatness of His 
precious promises begets a lively faith, coupling 
simplicity and boldness in prayer. Thus led in 
joyous communion he delights in the conscious 
indwelling of the Spirit, and truly says, with all 


THE CHURCH. 


65 


the ardor and vigor of the renewed nature: “Our 
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son 
Jesus Christ.” This blessed and continued fel¬ 
lowship is the solution for all the conglomerated 
diversities of Christendom, the key to unlock the 
mysteries, the bond which would unite all be¬ 
lievers into one glorious and blessed federated 
relationship, giving to Christians the zeal and ex¬ 
traordinary illumination which characterized the 
primitive Christians in their desire to extend 
the kingdom of the Lord Christ. Listen to the 
unity in the work of spreading the Gospel of 
glad tidings: “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
and to us,” said the Apostle Paul, when he and 
his colaborer, Barnabas, went to relate to the 
council at Jerusalem an account of their labors. 
Here was unity, “the Holy Ghost and us.” Let 
the body of believers agree to labor in company 
of, and directed by, the Holy Ghost, and how 
quickly all sects and opposition would be merged 
into “Him who filleth all things;” and in view 
of the teaching of the word, it is Christ “who is 
the exalted Head of the Church, and He is be¬ 
fore all things, and by Him all things consist.” 
The Church has to do with facts, not fancies; 
not the philosophies of men, but the verities of 


I 

66 THE CHUKCH. 

God. She is brought face to face with divine 
facts, and equally true divine philosophy. Not 
on the one hand with the divine facts, and 
human reasonings and philosophy on the other, 
but a system of divine philosophy, as well as 
divine facts. Agreeable to the gracious sover¬ 
eign Lord, the Founder of the Church, believ¬ 
ers must be united in Christ, vitally united witji 
God, their only hope, through the Spirit, be¬ 
cause “I will make a new covenant.” “I will 
put My law in their midst, and in their hearts 
will I reward them, and their sins and iniquities 
will I remember no more.” 

Man everywhere, and at all times, has broken 
the covenant relation with God, but in these last 
days grace came; Jesus Christ, the prototype of 
the Father’s love, has entered into covenant re¬ 
lations, and assumes responsibility for the frail 
human believer. Acknowledging that they 
cannot keep the covenant, so the eternal, merci¬ 
ful God enters into covenant relation with the 
Lord Christ, who, on behalf of His people, keeps 
the contract; notwithstanding all the believer’s 
unfaithfulness the covenant stands, because of 
“Llim who hath entered for us,” and by Him all 
that believe are justified from all things from 


THE CHURCH. 


67 


which ye could not be justified by the law of 
Moses.” 

This accords with the love standard. This 
principle is adapted to all conditions of believers 
who hold the truth of Jesus, regardless of ec¬ 
clesiastical machinery, with the mere rudiments 
of men who hold to tradition after the “rudi¬ 
ments of men and not after Christ,” holding the 
cardinal test principles of “one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism.” Acknowledge this standard, it 
would lead to grand results. The charitable 
recognition of love to the brethren, the realiza¬ 
tion of that idea, which is the earnest wish and 
aspiration of every child of God, producing 
unity of spirit, which would subordinate every 
outward condition and difference, unfolding the 
Scriptural conception of “faith’s household,” en¬ 
abling Christians to accept the Pauline reason¬ 
ings by acknowledging all outward diversity in 
things non-essential to salvation with cheerful 
toleration, in that “we that are strong ought to 
bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please 
ourselves.” Hence the Apostle again reasons, 
prayerfully, “How the God of patience and con¬ 
solation grant you to be likeminded one toward 
another, according to Christ Jesus, that ye may 


I 


68 


THE CHURCH. 


with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where¬ 
fore receive ye one another as Christ also re¬ 
ceived us, to the glory of God.” 

Here, then, the early and latter Church has 
its basis of love in unity, ruling in the affection, 
controlling the motives, the mainspring for all 
actions, striving for the glory of God amid all 
the diversity of theory and opinion. Is this 
somewhat the burden of the evangelical prophet, 
who gave such a vivid description of the glory 
of the “latter days,” “when the envy of Ephraim 
shall depart, and the adversary of Judah shall 
he cut olf; when Ephraim shall not envy Judah, 
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” This was 
the prospective view of the prophet; and how 
much it reflects to us, of our day, the mind of 
Christ. What the believers should and finally 
will be, when they recognize the fact that all the 
believing host is a definite constituency, prede¬ 
termined by God, called out, separated, and 
known as the elect, the body, the chosen bride 
of Christ forever, the redeemed of the Lord and 
blessed. 

“Having made known unto us the mystery 
of His will, according to His good pleasure, 


THE CHURCH. 


69 


which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the 
dispensation of the fullness of time He might 
gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven and which are on earth, 
even in Him. In whom also we have obtained 
an inheritance, being predestined according to 
the purpose of Him who worketh all things after 
the counsel of His own will, that we should be 
to the praise of His glory who first trusted in 
Christ.” 


CHAPTER III. 

the; source of feeeowship of the CHURCH IN CHRIST. 

I Corinthians i: 9. —God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the 
fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

I John i : 3. — That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, 
that ye also may have fellowship with us / and truly our fellowship 
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 

Philippians i : 4, 5. —Always in every prayer of mine for you all, 
making request with joy. 

For your fellowship in the Gospel. 

In Christ the believer is to rejoice in blessed 
fellowship, and the fellowship of believers is a 
spiritual fellowship and presupposes regenera¬ 
tive faith, which worketh by love, and expresses, 
through the love principle, the highest possible 
idea of man in relation to his fellow men, seeing 
in every renewed man the purchased of Christ, 
the inheritance of his sovereign Lord, uniting 
by a glorious bond the brotherhood of believers 
in one common faith and hope. Such a unity 
is the basis of true, real, spiritual fellowship. It 
will afford sufficient expansiveness to allow its 
adaptation to meet the ever varying outward 
condition in which the truth of the word should 
be taught. “To make all men see what is the 
fellowship of the mystery which from the be¬ 
ginning of the world hath been hid in God, who 
70 




THE CHURCH. 


71 


created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent 
that now unto the principalities and powers in 
heavenly places might be known by the Church 
the manifold wisdom of God; according to the 
eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ 
Jesus, our Lord; in whom we have boldness and 
access, with confidence by the faith of Him.” 

This Pauline conception, by the Holy Spirit’s 
leading, will give the believer a purer insight 
into the word, as it unfolds the mystery and 
rolls back the curtain, displaying to the faith 
faculty the blessed relation of the renewed man 
toward his brother. 

Here is a doctrinal, Biblical basis, the true 
and sure foundation upon which all can build, 
acknowledging the Scripture as the pure, entire 
word of God, an all-sufficient authority, as a 
rule of faith and practice. By accepting its 
divine origin and inspiration brings the great 
norm standard to the front, and by its rule test¬ 
ing and proving all the principles and theories 
of man-made and man-evolved ideas, appealing 
to its standard in love, because it is the gracious 
discovery to us of our Lord in His marvelous, 
transcendent pity by graciously pardoning us of 
our sins; and thus pardoned, the believer under- 


72 


THE CHUECH. 


stands the blessed nature of the transfigured 
character, exalted by Him who is the “Elder 
Brother.” This mystery, the word in sublime, 
unchanged testimony, reveals, opening up to his 
faith discernment higher and beyond the simple 
horizon of man-made ethics, far above human 
philosophy. It is God’s revelation to us, the 
written word, enabling the believer to look into 
the mysterious, “the up and above,” encourag¬ 
ing him “to press toward the mark of the prize 
of the high calling.” Meanwhile in loving 
sympathy with “all that call upon the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place, their 
Lord and ours.” 

If this blessed spirit were to prevail, this love 
principle predominating, we should be relieved 
of the saddening and trying embarrassment of 
party spirit, with its intermixture of legal con¬ 
straint, the “mint and cumin” of organized 
Churchianity, with its numberless polities would 
give way to the pressure of the word in its cor¬ 
roborated testimony of God’s loving kindness 
toward us in Christ Jesus. In a word, it is glory 
to God, the one united, harmonious, consistent, 
accumulated evidence to sustain the believer in 
his right conception of the graces of faith, hope 



THE CHURCH. 


7 3 


and love, by directing him in bis external con¬ 
duct of holy living. The chart, whose every 
line merges into Him; the compass, whose un¬ 
wavering needle points to the poles, assuring the 
Christian that the harbor is beyond. Never 
mind how high may run the crest waves on the 
ocean of theological controversy or combat, the 
forces of systematic philosophy, or the accom¬ 
panying schools of critical Biblical examination 
in their combined assaults upon the word, with 
their cold weighing of the concrete statement, 
by their mental and intellectual scales, whose 
every weight has been weighed in the balance 
and found wanting, and notwithstanding all its 
assaults from every source, the word is the great 
horizontal line in all the earth, lifting up 
through the Spirit application its truth of blessed 
comfort and cheer, showing and revealing the 
divine human holiness of the Lord Christ, and 
reminding the believer not what he now is, or 
has been, but what he shall finally become in 
glory; this the word does with faultless accu¬ 
racy and completeness; it has no need for 
any other finishing strokes; it is the work of a 
master-hand. The canvas is filled up, the col¬ 
orings are exquisite in grace, the figures are 


74 


THE CHURCH. 


complete in Him. It is a bright, glorious pic¬ 
ture, revealing the Father’s purpose in His 
eternal counsel. There are no parts left un¬ 
touched or unfinished; no cloud, but a resplen¬ 
dent beauty, shining and radiating all about it, 
throwing its effulgent light into every heart that 
believes in the blessed Gospel of the Son of God. 

Let it find expression in real life, and there 
will be no disposition for continued differences, 
magnified under the various denominational 
lenses, with their accompanying dissensions, but 
the blessed, real communion, and union of ac¬ 
tion among the brethren, whether they are 
called “Paul,” or “Apollos,” or “Cephas,” or 
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or 
things to come. All are yours, and ye are 
Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. “Therefore let 
no man glory in (denominationalism) men for 
all things are yours.” 

The faith of the believer, working by the 
love principle, will find suitable and satisfactory 
outw T ard expression without controversy relative 
to the externals of worship; whatever formula it 
may assume for its embodiment, it will be agree¬ 
able to the Spirit’s workings, the outward de¬ 
velopment will yield to the vigorous growth of 


THE CHURCH. 


75 


the life within, and the life-giving power of the 
Spirit controlling every action of the believer, 
in charity toward one another, adapting them¬ 
selves to the suggestion of the Spirit within the 
fold of Christ. 

The Church, as an institution, and as insti¬ 
tuted by her divine Founder, has, of necessity, 
a twofold aim. It sought first to embody and 
join together in love believers in Christ, by a 
bond in one common society, for their mutual 
preservation from all adverse influences of the 
world, by which they were surrounded on all 
sides, and for their spiritual growth in knowl¬ 
edge and perfection of character, to the ‘‘com¬ 
fort yourselves together, and edifying one an¬ 
other, even as also ye do,” and further by 
“speaking the truth in love, may grow up into 
all things, which is the Head, even Christ; from 
whom the whole body fitly joined together and 
compact, by that which every joint supplieth ac¬ 
cording to the effectual working in the measure 
of every part, maketh increase of the body unto 
the edifying of itself in love.” 

And concomitant with these, and equally im¬ 
portant, was the carrying and spreading of the 
good news of the glad tidings of the Gospel. It 


76 


THE CHURCH. 


is now, and ever was intended to be, aggressive, 
knowing no obstacle too great, no trial too 
severe, no punishment too painful, to dampen 
her ardor, or cool her zeal, ever directing her 
combined forces against the kingdom of dark¬ 
ness and sin. This is the condition; the two¬ 
fold purpose of its self-preservation and growth, 
and the diffusion of the Gospel to all men was 
the aim of every gathering of believers. Their 
mission, as stated, was the witnessing of the 
truth. “They were to bring men into fellow¬ 
ship with the Father and the Son, through the 
Holy Spirit.” They formed the links in the 
great chain of communication externally, one 
with another, in visible unity. This was the 
function of the early Church; it continues to be 
the function of the Church of “these last times.” 

The Church mission, then, is twofold—the 
edifying of believers to the glory of her Lord, 
and witnessing by her continued attestation of 
the facts of the Saviour’s life, death, resurrec¬ 
tion and ascension, and His coming again. This 
constituted the cardinal truths of the word—* 
witnessing to the same until He shall come 
again. “When Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in 



THE CHURCH. 


77 


glory.” The fidelity and reward of believers, 
all taught with no uncertain sound; the entire 
range and scope of the word encouraged the be¬ 
liever in the “continuing in well-doing.” This 
is the doctrinal statement, with its spiritual 
power and influence, giving the right poise, lend¬ 
ing color to the mind, controlling and subduing 
all the desires of the old nature, whilst going 
through the progressive stages of becoming sons 
of glory by being “kindly affectionate one to¬ 
ward another with brotherly love, in honor pre¬ 
ferring one another.” The God of patience and 
love grant you to be like-minded one toward an¬ 
other according to Christ Jesus, that ye may 
with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here, 
again, the apostle urges the believers to joyfully 
anchor upon the love principle with all their 
affection, to look beyond the ken of the mere 
earthly and natural man, to apprehend the far 
up, “unseen and eternal” in the joyful, blessed 
light of beholding “things unseen,” by the spirit 
of peace indwelling, preparing the way to a 
cheerful, ready acquisition in mutual love, the 
manifold wisdom of God. 

Here, again, the Spirit leads the Church of 


78 


THE CHURCH. 


Christ for all believers to recognize the adapta¬ 
tion to the purpose for which it was intended, 
namely, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” 
fitted for every condition, “the all sorts and con¬ 
ditions of men,” to lay hold upon, and of suffi¬ 
cient breadth and scope to meet the ever broad¬ 
ening stages of culture in the “widening devel¬ 
opment of many minds,” because “the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us,” that all 
might know Him from the greatest to the least, 
“wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him to be 
made like unto His brethren, that He might be 
a merciful and faithful High Priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the 
sins of the people.” 

This is of the Lord, made a Priest unto God, 
for the believer to offer up the acceptable sacri¬ 
fice to make reconciliation. How this the Holy 
Spirit graciously discovers to the believer, the 
truth of the Eternal Father’s reconciliation to 
the renewed man, who is “saved by grace.” He, 
the renewed man, meanwhile, in his associa- 
tional and fraternal relation to his fellow man, 
should exercise this blessed spirit in the bond of 
love, dwelling together in unity, ever remember¬ 
ing the Pauline entreaty, “I beseech you, 


THE CHURCH. 


79 


brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that ye all speak the same things, and that there 
be no division among you, but that ye be per¬ 
fectly joined together in the same mind, and in 
the same judgment.” A plea for unity of be¬ 
lievers, based upon the name of the Sovereign 
Lord. 

All brethren should be actuated by one spirit 
to work in harmony for the common end, guided 
in the one uniform of the Master’s devising, to 
“come to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty,” in oneness of spirit, not by the divided 
ranks of sectarian strife, led by the controversial 
spirit so often witnessed in the man-made leader¬ 
ship of theological professors, with their silken 
reasonings, so palatable to the human taste, with 
the accompanying sophistries as taught in the 
various schools of theology; sowing the seeds 
whose germs only too quickly develop, question¬ 
ing the authenticity of the word by throwing all 
manner of doubt upon the Mosaic narration of 
the Pentateuch, searching for discord, rather 
than concord, by mutilating the figurative ex¬ 
pression beyond all recognition, teaching the 
philosophy of reason for the philosophy of rev¬ 
elation, substituting man’s conception of equity 


80 


THE CHURCH. 


for the judgments of God, swinging man far out 
upon the materialistic side of his being to the 
warping of the spiritual progress of the soul’s 
development, producing position for men rather 
than possession of men, bringing the acumen of 
the intellect to solve the great problem of grace 
by scientific analysis, putting matter against 
spirit, measuring cardinal truths of the word 
by the rule of mental calculation, instead of 
exercising the faith faculty to behold the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Star of the soul’s zenith. 

The doctrine of the word does not rest upon 
mere human authority, much less its interpreta¬ 
tion to be confirmed by its system of reasonings. 
It is true, however, the Holy Spirit does apply 
the doctrine of the word through human agen¬ 
cies; and for this reason, if for none other, ex¬ 
ceeding great care should be exercised to avoid 
the mischievous effects of traditionalism, and the 
ever increasing notions of men, which are con¬ 
tinually confronting the believer in his search 
after truth. The opinions of men are not to be 
accepted, and consequently are of no conse¬ 
quence when it comes to questions which the 
gracious Lord has settled by His word, making 
known what His pleasure is. The warnings of 



I. 


THE CHURCH. 81 

Christ, coupled with the precious teachings and 
the blessed comforting truths of the Gospel, 
should occupy the attention of believers, and in¬ 
spire their hearts, enabling them to continually 
look to the exalted Christ, the Pole-star of their 
hopes, not the doubtful disputings of men, but 
the mind of Christ, their Lord, because “re¬ 
vealed religion is not of the nature of a pro¬ 
gressive science,” but is “joy and peace in the 
Holy Ghost.” 

Hence, if believers are dogmatic, it should be 
dogmatism of a positive conviction that the 
supreme will of the Lord Christ should rule in 
their lives, to the praise and glory of His name, 
inasmuch as “He gave Himself for us, that He 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works.” Thus encouraged in their labors by 
holy, reverential zeal for the spiritual promo¬ 
tion of the brethren, and the salvation of souls, 
“comforting yourselves together and edifying 
one another, even as ye also do.” 

“Exhort one another daily, while it is called 
to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the 
deceitfulness of sin.” Hot by the pedantic dis¬ 
plays of scholastic attainments, or the lordly at- 


82 


THE CHUECH. 


tempts at exegetical exposition of the mysteries, 
be it prophecy or gospel, with the worldly pride 
which savors so much of the Eleatic philosophy, 
with its attendant philosophical errors. “But 
consider one another to provoke unto love and to 
good works.” “Let the word of Christ dwell in 
you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admon¬ 
ishing one another in psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts 
to the Lord.” 

Believers are invited by the Word to enter 
into relation of the love principle, in all the 
blessed uses of the means of grace, by the Word 
indwelling, controlling the internal and external 
life, by admonishing one another with psalms 
and hymns. And glory to God, be it in any 
and all the varied phases of life, it was designed 
that the believers should live to the praise of 
His name, by giving up, yea surrendering “our 
bodies and spirits, which are His,” in the 
strength of unity, and beauty of the love prin¬ 
ciple, shedding its blessed fragrance upon all 
sides of the Church life, permeating every mem¬ 
ber of the body. Here is the progressive stage 
of “bringing many sons to glory.” Here is 
room for the full and free exercise of those 


THE CHURCH. 


83 


blessed teachings of the “sermon on the mount.” 
Ground wide enough and broad enough for all 
believers, regardless of their attainments, be it 
in the realms of faith or science; and who, 
of all believers, does not long for such a real, 
true, blessed conception of the faith-life, vital¬ 
ized, energized and quickened in the Church on 
earth; to see her spiritual life and love to her 
risen Lord united with all the vigor and fresh¬ 
ness of her youthful beauty. Striving for mas¬ 
tery; “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together, as the manner of some is, but exhort¬ 
ing one another, and so much the more as ye 
see the day approaching.” Looking with the 
eye of faith toward Him who points to the con¬ 
summate, transcendental, eminent time, when 
the prayer shall have been answered, and the 
now dislocated, fragmentary, divided body shall 
be one body in the Lord. However paradoxical 
it may appear, and however great the trial of 
faith, there is a glorious rift in the clouds. 
Hever mind the apparent darkness of the pres¬ 
ent, the golden sunbeams are all but ready to 
burst through; the storms have swept, and thank 
God, their forces have been scattered “upon the 
rock Christ Jesus.” The crisis is fast passing; 


84 


THE CHURCH. 


the glorious day-dawn is nigh at hand; the 
Church is far up into the Saturday night of the 
new day; the blessed insignia is all but ready 
for the waving; the tread of the mighty host of 
the Lord seems all but ready to move. “The 
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and 
with the trump of God. “Behold, He cometh 
with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and 
they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds 
of the earth shall wail because of Him; even so, 
Amen.” 

When the glorious Lord shall come, the word 
informs us that “every eye shall see Him.” Hot 
only the redeemed of the Lord, but the very 
men who crucified the Lord of glory, and all 
who follow in their train. If for no other rea¬ 
son, this should be ground for the unity of be¬ 
lievers, to meet the coming Lord. What an in¬ 
spiration! “And every man that hath this hope 
in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” 
The blessed hope of the Lord’s appearing has 
ever been the comforting thought all down the 
centuries. Believers have ever “looked” for the 
blessed Christ to come. “This same Jesus,” 
who said “I will come again.” The Church has 


THE CHUKCH. 


85 


ever held, and clung tenaciously to, this hope 
through all its blood stains. This truth has ever 
been witnessed to, and taught by the Lord’s 
chosen. The doctrine of the Word rests upon 
this pivotal point—it is the center of all Biblical 
doctrine—the Scriptures are continually reiterat¬ 
ing “the Lord is coming,” and the Church of 
Christ is only in her right relation when she 
occupies the expectant attitude. Relative to 
this practical center of the word, it is the hinge 
upon which all the gracious, blessed expecta¬ 
tions of the believer swing, opening up the way 
to those who long for the seeing “Him as He is.” 
These are no vagaries of the optimist, no delu¬ 
sion, nor the “cunningly devised fable,” but the 
veritable “blessed hope,” the sublime, engross¬ 
ing, all-absorbing, enrapturing thought to the 
believer. When the Lord shall come, the re¬ 
deemed Church will put away all its divisions 
and dissensions, the sectarian spirit which alien¬ 
ates the brotherhood, which mars the spiritual 
horizon by its lauding and exalting, its distinc¬ 
tive principles, concentrating and magnifying its 
forces, arresting the growth of the knowledge 
of the Gospel, dissipating the energies, which 
should all be centered toward the removal of the 


86 


THE CHUECH. 


obstacles in the way of the march triumphant of 
Emanuel’s kingdom, by discriminating scrupu¬ 
lously the distinguishing, basal truths of the 
word. 

The body of believers is of far more import¬ 
ance than all the petted and fondled notions of 
denominational leaders, whose eloquence and 
charming rhetoric, coupled with their scholastic 
attainment, however much admired; the body 
of believers is of much greater value; they are 
the purchased of the Lord, should be, and finally 
will become, notwithstanding all the apparent 
unreconcilable, disunited sects, because in them 
“hath He His own;” she is larger and broader, 
grander and diviner than all the ecclesiastical 
organizations. Believers are regenerated char¬ 
acters, saved by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit; 
a corporation in blessed cooperative love, co¬ 
ordinating all things for Christ’s sake, in “honor 
preferring one another.” Ho society or organ¬ 
ization compares with her. She is the bride of 
an heavenly Bridegroom. The Church, in her 
bridal attire, will be (and, praise be to God, the 
time appears not far distant) the fairest to meet 
Him in more than Edanic glory and splendor. 

Again, the love principle enables believers to 


THE CHURCH. 


87 


purify the lens of the faith faculty, to behold 
the blessed unifying function of the Spirit, to 
allot to every member, according to his separate 
ability, his work in the sphere of Christian use¬ 
fulness, “to every man his work.” “For ye are 
lively stones, builded together.” Hence the 
masterly presentation of the diversity of the 
Spirit’s operation to the believers at Corinth by 
the Apostle Paul, “How there are diversities of 
gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differ¬ 
ences of administration, but the same Lord, and 
there are diversities of operations, but it is the 
same God which worketh all in all. But the 
manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man 
to profit withal. For to one is given by the 
Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word 
of knowledge, by the same Spirit; to another 
faith, by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of 
healing, by the same Spirit; to another the work¬ 
ing of miracles; to another prophecy; to another 
discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of 
tongues; to another interpretation of tongues. 
But all these worketh that one and the self-same 
Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He 
will. For as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one body 


88 


THE CHUECH. 


being many, are one body; so, also, is Christ.” 
The one great thought, then, of the Apostle was 
to impress upon the believers at Corinth the 
diversified unity of the Spirit’s, operation in its 
myriad-fold diversity in love, laboring harmoni¬ 
ously toward the common end. In these “latter 
days” we are not gifted, no one of us, with those 
supernatural powers here enumerated; but we 
have the same Spirit assisting our infirmities, 
sanctifying the ordinary, natural gifts of God, 
and having received from His gracious hands, 
“be ye thankful.” 

The advanced civilizing effect of Christian 
morals, with its accompanying culture, ever im¬ 
proving in the progressive stages of uptrend by 
its association and contact with science and phil¬ 
osophy, giving free play to the laws of mind and 
matter, aided by scholarly researches into those 
all but untrodden paths, believers can see 
through “nature up to Nature’s God,” knowing 
the truth of the Word, and with the Psalmist of 
old say: “The heavens declare the glory of God, 
and the firmament showeth His handiwork,” 
recognizing that all Nature is but a sublime 
testimony of the unity and design of the eternal 
Jehovah. How eloquently does the starry 


THE CHURCH. 


89 


heavens speak to the “child of the King,” who 
can stand out and scan the glorious canopy with 
his soul stretching upward toward the “Father 
of Light, from whom cometh every good and 
perfect gift.” The great created universe is but 
one corroborated unit in its testimony. All 
Nature’s firmament, with its vast phenomena, 
its stores of hidden forces, its spring blossom and 
winter frost, to the sunbeam and autumnal tints, 
whose very shading of the forest leaf to the blade 
of grass, in meadow green to the mountain top, 
whose loftiest crags down to the deepest ravines 
with gorge and canyon, whose catacoustics re¬ 
hearse the “praises of His name.” Nature is 
but the evangel of her Creator’s hand in blessed, 
harmonious agreement, while the music of the 
zephyrs comes wafted on the breeze, laden with 
fragrance of sweet incense, so inspiring, “the un¬ 
sealed volume read by all the race;” God’s 
natural preacher, preaching the marvelous truths 
from all creation, whose evidence, with unmis¬ 
takable language, testifies. “Hay unto day ut- 
tereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge.” 

Here, again, believers can exercise the liberal¬ 
ism of intellectual culture, free from all the 


90 


THE CHURCH. 


narrowness and particularism of the classical, 
mythological notions; free because of the liberty 
of the truth, exercising the love principle in all 
its research after knowledge in company “with 
Him” who “sends the help from the sanctuary, 
and strengthens thee out of Zion.” The desire 
to know is but the preparatory school from 
which all scholars in the school of Christ should 
graduate; hence, “learn of Me, I am meek and 
lowly.” Hot only should believers learn of the 
beauties of the blessed Christ in His sublime 
simplicity, but also learn of Him in those higher 
and grander principles, which He so graciously 
taught and set forth. The great possibilities, 
the recognition of great, underlying principles 
of the eternal all-Father, and the blessed brother¬ 
hood, by exercising the love principle of “loving 
thy neighbor as thyself.” 

This matchless ethic is a basal rock truth of 
the w T ord; it is higher than any mere human 
standard ever raised; under its banner every 
kindred and tribe could rally, the “valleys would 
be exalted, and the hills made low.” Ho more 
division, nor schism, nor concision; it would, 
glory to God, make the “crooked straight, and 
the rough places plain.” It would not only 


THE CHURCH. 


91 


affect the external, but the internal man; his in¬ 
tellectual and aesthetic self would be balanced 
upon a right relation, one toward another, in 
love. All the literature, science and art would 
conform to the “statutes of the Lord.” Philos¬ 
ophy would stand in the Baconian conception 
of true admiration for the “author of all created 
things,” accepting a faith in strictest union and 
harmony with the facts and laws of man’s ethical 
nature. What a triumph, when all the systems, 
the scholastic researches are laid upon the altar 
in the blessed enlightened consciousness that 
“the Lord is God,” and the “earth is the Lord’s 
and the fullness thereof, and all they that dwell 
therein.” 

The Pauline Epistles are but one continual 
presentation of the eternal sovereignty of God, 
that philosophy, science, art, literature, all might 
redound to the praises of Him who loved us, and 
gave His dear Son. What an appeal for the 
love principle in the body of believers, because 
all that individually and collectively love the 
Lord Jesus Christ are bound to contribute all in 
their power to the edifying of the body of Christ. 
Hot merely in a cold, conventional sentimental¬ 
ism, but in a real, warm, brotherly affection, “in 


92 


THE CHURCH. 


the Lord/’ “till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, 
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ.” 

This is no cold, colorless, freezing message, 
with the death-like disease of man-made soph¬ 
istry, under the thin guise of Rabbinic ortho¬ 
doxy. Oh no, but it is, on the contrary, a glori¬ 
ous, life-giving, warm, stimulating soul-inspira¬ 
tion, so refreshing, of true Biblical monotheism, 
free from all the superficial infirmities and gross 
inconsistencies of man-made leadership. It is 
wider, and above all those childish speculations, 
passing far out and beyond the realms of the in¬ 
credulous, with its accompanying rancor and 
distrust, accepting truth because it is truth, in 
the blessed, conscious exercise of its gracious 
freedom, standing upon its vantage ground, re¬ 
lieved from all the subtle reasonings of the cor¬ 
rupted systems of iron-clad dogmas, and the still 
worse insolence of the modern critics, in their 
open and unsolicited attack upon the written 
word, in their feeble attempts of telling God 
what, in their judgment, is true and false in His 
revealed word. 

The Epistles meet all the issues relative to the 


THE CHURCH. 


93 


essentials of the redeemed Church. The Apostle 
Paul possessed a clear and marvelous insight 
into the great and ever varying needs of men. 
To one he said, relative to keeping the Holy 
Days, “He that keepeth, keepeth unto the Lord, 
and he that keepeth it not is unto the Lord.” 

The preponderance of the dialectical element 
was, in a marked degree, shown in the Apostle. 
He reasoned along logical and discussive lines. 
He was enabled to embody in all his letters to 
the churches those distinctive doctrines of grace, 
and readily, because under the Spirit’s tuition, 
the champion of foreordination and the eternal 
purposes of God. It was reserved for him to 
unfold and make known the truly universal and 
spiritual character of the Church of Christ. He 
had the advantage of thorough training; he had 
sat at the feet of the learned Gamaliel. His 
mind had been liberalized by Greek culture; he 
was a scholar of no mean repute. Sanctified 
scholarship is a blessing to the race. He used 
his attainment to the praise of the sovereign 
Christ. His every faculty was consecrated to 
the one all-absorbing work of his life, to make 
known the “unsearchable riches of Christ 
Jesus,” his Lord, “born as out of due time,” 


94 


THE CHURCH. 


willing to be tbe least of all the college of the 
apostles, “yet mighty in word and deed.” Con¬ 
cerning zeal in the forefront; ever ready, fresh 
and vigorous, the most enthusiastic life ever 
lived; “determined to know nothing among men, 
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 

And further, his love to the Lord and to the 
brethren led him not to “count his life dear.” 
Did the world ever witness a preacher like him? 
Preaching the power of the cross, with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven. What of his 
ringing declaration, as he stood and argued with 
the Athenians on Mars Hill, declaring unto 
them, those philosophers and sages, the “un¬ 
known God?” He stands in the front ranks of 
the array; he keeps close tread with the great 
Captain of Salvation. He trod in the foot-prints 
of Jesus as no other apostle was privileged; his 
life is an inspiration. 

If Christian preachers and teachers wish to 
study a life, with the one exception, namely, the 
life of our divine Lord, humanly speaking, here 
it is. Talk of the ancient hero and the modem 
leader; the Apostle Paul presents to the arena 
a challenge to the human mind for comparison 
for a rational explanation. Ho philosopher is 


THE CHURCH. 


95 


equal to the task; but ask him the solution, and 
his cry is the “love of Christ constraineth me.” 
“What things were gain to me, those I count 
loss for Christ.” “Yea, doubtless, and I count 
all things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord; for whom 
I have suffered the loss of all things, and do 
count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” 

The fervor of the love principle he cherished 
to his risen Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, so oc¬ 
cupied his heart, it was the one all-pervading 
center of his life. And Paul was a church 
member; thank God for the power of his exam¬ 
ple. His acceptance of the truth, as it is in 
Jesus, was not in a lazy acquiescence, or cold 
conformity. He beheld in every believer a 
brother in the Lord, a member of the mystical 
and visible body of Christ, and he called the be¬ 
lievers “saints and faithful brethren in Christ.” 
He well knew, from an experimental knowledge, 
that the grace of God can rest upon none else. 
The Gospel, to Paul, was a precious Gospel, and 
he encouraged believers in the faith-life, to live 
in the unity of the Gospel, and exhorted them to 
let “brotherly love continue.” 

The Church of Christ, then, is the blood 




96 


THE CHURCH. 


bought, the ransomed of the Lord, and the 
called out of the world; strangers to its fashions, 
its corrupting customs; in it, but not of it; the 
chosen of the Father; the born again; not of the 
corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible; in¬ 
heritors of a kingdom that cannot be moved; 
sons of glory, raised unto His praise, in whom 
the Lord delighted; saints of the Lord, called 
sometimes holy brethren; indeed as the apple of 
His eye; the clothed and made perfect in Him. 
How, what a contrast between the Church that 
our gracious all-loving Father sees in Christ 
Jesus. 

And the Church we see, in its divided, dis¬ 
located, fragmentary, contentious bodies, one 
“crying one thing, some another.” The Church 
should be the highest possible embodiment of 
character, with all it implies; and however para¬ 
doxical it may appear, she is, notwithstanding 
the sore disturbing, and ofttimes distracting, 
schisms and controversial discord, with their 
theological tenets and narrow, hairsplitting phil¬ 
osophizing. The Church is the most super-best 
institution the world has ever witnessed. She 
has survived all the rise and fall of the bitter 
attacks levied against her; she is coming forth 


THE CHURCH. 


97 


conquering, “terrible as an army with banners;” 
distinguished from all other organisms, the one 
finite instance of specialization; her work being 
the testifying to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, 
her Lord and Founder. She differentiates from 
all other societies or gatherings in that her King 
is not an earthly, but a heavenly King. Her 
subjects are not of this world, but living in it. 
Her laws are not grievous, not carnal, but spir- ^ 
itual. Her members are many, yet one in Him; 
divided, yet united; separated, yet bound to¬ 
gether in love; dying daily unto the world, yet 
living unto God; crucified and slain, yet ever 
living; buried and risen; ofttimes poor, yet pos¬ 
sessing all things. Poor, making many rich; 
dead, yet living, her unity “consists in converged 
diversities,” where all the ends are means, and 
all means are ends. 


CHAPTER IV. 

the believer’s citizenship is of heavenly origin. 

For our citizenship is in Heaven, from whence we wait also fora Sav¬ 
iour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our 
humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. 

John i : 13.— Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh , 
nor of the will of man, but of God. 

I John v : 1. — Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ , is born of 
God; and every one that loveth him that begat , loveth him also that 
is begotten oj him. 

I Peter i : 23.— Being born again , not of corruptible seed, but of in¬ 
corruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. 

“Eor our citizenship is in heaven, from 
whence we wait also for a Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body 
of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to 
the body of His glory; according to the working 
thereby He is able even to subject all things 
unto Himself.” “We are begotten again unto 
a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, begotten to an inheritance in¬ 
corruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept 
by the power of God, through faith, unto salva¬ 
tion, ready to be revealed at the last time, 
wherein ye greatly rejoice.” 

The believer is, agreeable to the word, a 
98 


N 


• I 


THE CHURCH. 


99 


citizen of heaven; his every hope is above. He 
is counselled to “seek those things which are 
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of 
God. Set your affections on things above, not 
on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and 
your life is hid with Christ in God. When 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
you also appear with Him in glory.” These 
glorious truths are written to believers, and are 
intended for, and applicable to, all who are “the 
called according to His purpose.” Believers in 
the love of the Gospel grace understand this 
higher altitude; they walk in loftier spheres, 
among those “who look for His appearing.” 
Climbing up the steeps of life in blessed trust; 
to scan the horizon by faith; to behold “the com¬ 
ing One.” Meanwhile busily engaged in the 
work of preparing, “setting things in order,” 
standing together in the “bond of perfectness,” 
with all the enthusiasm born of a vigorous hope; 
inspired by the promise, “I will come again.” 
United in the blessed grace of the precious 
Gospel, with all the freshness of a young man, 
strong to run the race. United, not in abstract 
theories, nor in cold, concrete analyses of proph¬ 
ecy, in speculative arrangement, but united in 



100 


THE CHURCH. 


the blessed hope of the Gospel; striving to fulfil 
the Master’s desires, that “ye all should be one;” 
one in purpose, one in aim, one in the love of 
the truth, one “that brotherly love may con¬ 
tinue.” Not for diversity, but for similarity; not 
for contraction, but for expansion; not for insist- 
ance, but for assistance; not for the narrow par¬ 
ticularisms, but for sublime unification to come 
and learn lessons from the beatitudes; to catch 
the spirit of their principle; to know the mind 
of the Lord. Let the cold, theological contro- 
versalist, with his entire array of theological 
clenctica bring it to the test of the norm stand¬ 
ard of the word, however fruitful and produc¬ 
tive may have been their service, accomplishing 
marvelous things for the student, assisting to 
solve and reconcile the apparent and all but un- 
reconcilable truths, leaving its technology for¬ 
ever in obmutescence, and their theories to pass 
into oblivion. Thus freed, the glorious truth 
of the word, plain, unvarnished, untrammeled 
with the ornamental weights of theological for¬ 
mula, and still worse ecclesiastical machinery, 
with its man-made gradations of pomp and cere¬ 
mony. The word declared to believers, ex¬ 
pressed in God-language in one universal, happy, 


THE CHURCH. 


101 


harmonious “come unto Me.” Making known, 
in direct contact, the spirit of good will to all 
men, in heaven’s own original revelation. Thus, 
again, the love principle, in all its freshness and 
power, dwelling in the Church, would forever 
still the uproar, and silence the controversial 
spirit, subordinating all the generalization of 
men to the one united, all-important, royal ex¬ 
pression of God’s love to man. The Spirit per¬ 
vading the whole scheme of redemption, the one 
blessed united spirit, continuing in the Father’s 
love, the Son’s work, the Spirit’s grace. 

What scope and limitless extent here opens 
up to the eye of the believer, which now is 
cleared to the right conception by this straight¬ 
ened faith faculty, to look and scan the expan¬ 
sive “horizon of Christian love, reaching out to 
every brother in the Lord,” in the one out¬ 
stretching desire, with “love to all men” em¬ 
blazoned upon his escutcheon, the ever sugges¬ 
tive suum cutque iributo. 

It is not the province of the Church to enter 
the realms of “doubtful disputings” in the con¬ 
troversial spirit. It may, or may not, be 
profitable to debate the question of the soul’s 
immortality, and inquire: Is the essence of the 


102 


THE CHURCH. 


human soul material, or immaterial? It would 
appear sufficient to accept that it is of divine 
origin, and divine similitude, and immortal. For 
this plain and obvious reason, if for none other, 
search where we will, go through the libraries 
of all the ancient and modern literature, from 
no source can be secured the desired informa¬ 
tion. Search where we may, in all the realms 
of the myriad-fold philosophies and sciences; no 
clear and well defined conception can be secured. 
Ideas men have had, and will continue to have, 
but ideas only. Mark you, there is no distinc¬ 
tive meaning attached to the term of soul and 
immortality outside of the gracious revelation 
of the revealed word. In all the wide, wide 
universe, in its farthest outstretch into eternity, 
there is no sure foundation to construct any 
argument of sufficient strength to build upon, 
no settled premises. We do understand some¬ 
thing about corruptibility and incorruptibility, 
intelligence and unintelligence, organic and in¬ 
organic; these are terms which convey readily 
and distinctly clear meanings to the mind, and 
impart forms or modes of being that are within 
the scope of human comprehension, but ma¬ 
teriality and immateriality are beyond the grasp 


THE CHURCH. 


103 


of comprehension, “the ken of human reach.” 
Of the essence of matter we know so little, and 
still less of its qualities. What can we know of 
what is immaterial, of the fullest meaning of 
the term, that in the strictest sense comprehends 
all the rest of the immense fabric of actual and 
possible being, and includes in its vast expanse 
and circumference every essence and mode of 
essence of every other being, beyond and above, 
here and below; how shall we reach the quality 
of extension, or commence the starting point in 
the line of separation between what is material 
and what is immaterial? Or is it simply a dis¬ 
tinction founded upon speculative conjecture, 
which by no means, and not at any time, has, 
or will, stand the test of revelation? Is the 
state in which believers are to be, a state of con¬ 
tinual acceptance of the word? Undoubtedly. 
And all believers, true believers, desire the con¬ 
firmation of the word in support of their propo¬ 
sition; and further, because in all the vast re¬ 
searches he discovers in the word a divine phil¬ 
osophy, as well as a divine history. Both the 
Biblical theology and history are a confirmation 
of its narration, standing out in clear outline 
against the darkened horizon of the misty man- 


/ 

104 THE CHURCH. 

made theories. “For their rock is not our rock, 
even our enemies themselves being judges.” The 
rock foundation of the Word of God. “Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Christ Jesus.” “How, if any man build 
upon the foundation, gold, silver, precious 
stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work 
shall be made manifest, for the day shall try 
every man’s work of what sort it is.” 

Bring all the philosophies and sciences and 
theories to the test of the foundation, the build¬ 
ing upon the “Rock, Christ Jesus,” and to every 
man in the Church, the mystical body of the 
Lord. Here is the test standard in love, the 
gracious privilege to every man, “called of God” 
to become a builder; not a destroyer, but a 
Builder, with a capital B; building with precious 
materials of enduring qualities, that will stand 
the fire-test, the crucial ordeal of the awful, 
sweeping conflagration, when He shall come to 
try every man’s work with fire. 

Is this not an appeal for Christian unity in 
the Church of Christ, to build upon the sure 
foundation, the grounded truths of the verities 
of Almighty God? Then it was given to the 
Apostle Paul to bring to the notice of believers 


THE CHURCH. 


105 


the desirability of unity in Him, the Lord. He 
took it for granted, after the Spirit had illumi¬ 
nated his mind, that the reconciliation of God 
as righteous, and man as sinner, had been 
effected through the God-man, and thus led, he 
makes known the order and connection between 
cause and effect. The cause of the separation 
of man from God was sin, the effect of sin is 
death, morally and spiritually. “You hath He 
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and 
sins.” “For we are His workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto to good works, which God 
hath before ordained, that we should walk in 
them.” 

The written word reveals the condition of the 
believer now as saved, and thus saved, contrasts 
him to what he formerly was, with suggestive 
force. “For ye are bought with a price, there¬ 
fore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are God’s.” “Ye are bought with a 
price; be not ye the servants of men.” You 
will notice the word teaches that both the body 
and the spirit are God’s, through purchase, and 
man is a complex being. Christ not only re¬ 
deems the spirit, but the body. Man, the cor¬ 
poreal man, the external self, and the soul, and 


106 


THE CHURCH. 


the spirit. He is made up of all these forces. 
They are all factors to one grand whole; not 
either or any can be left out, and the finished, 
completed, entire man remain. They constitute 
man, the divinely bestowed soul, and the 
humanly created body. With this in mind, the 
Apostle reiterates the law of God concerning 
man in the Church of Christ. He recognized 
the concerns of the law as related to both soul 
and body. Sin effects both, evokes ruin upon 
both, and, praise be God, redemption concerns 
both. The future will concern both. Their 
destiny is indissolubly linked by an inseparable 
bond. Ho man-made reasonings can set aside 
the Pauline teaching, to cause its meaning to 
lose its force to the lovers of the word of scrip¬ 
tural testimony. So affirmative and compre¬ 
hensive, the Apostle Paul was a masterly teacher 
and expounder of the truth as it is in Jesus. 
Listen: “I am set for the defence of the Gospel.” 
Every fibre of his being was in touch with, and 
offered in service for, the Lord. He was a sol¬ 
dier of the cross, equipped for the affray, ready 
for the onslaught, using the weapons of his war¬ 
fare, the sword of the Spirit. Hot in the con¬ 
tentious exercise of his apostolic authority, but 


THE CHURCH. 


107 


rather in the spirit of “meekness, serving the 
Lord.” 

The believer, under such tuition, could read¬ 
ily understand the gorgeous symbolism of the 
old Mosaic economy, with its storied parchments, 
were done away, because of the “fullness of the 
times,” bringing its accompanying advance 
stage of higher moral and spiritual culture. 
Hence the vast gorgeous ceremonial array of the 
temple service, with its symbolism and tokens 
of visible and external worship, ornate and beau¬ 
tiful, so impressive, educating by sight and 
sound—the eye to witness the priest bearing the 
sin offering; the ear to receive the music of the 
sanctuary. Both priest and service, all types to 
give way to the great prototype, the antitype. 
The old sacrificial offerings are past; their me¬ 
morial service now ended. Sight and sound, 
which appealed so strongly to the imagination, 
with sacramental observances, vividly stirring 
up the emotions; to long for Him who is to 
come, the promised One, the Deliverer; every 
movement of the priest and people in the old 
dispensation services was of great significance, 
no mere figure of speech, but a suggestive truth 
to be later revealed and unfolded. The service 


108 


THE CHURCH. 


was a unit, however many-tribed the worship¬ 
pers; the priest bore the name of each upon the 
breastplate, a name for each tribe, and the priest, 
the high priest, bore the names of the tribes in 
blessed unity. 

Our Lord Christ “was once offered to bear the 
sins of many, and unto them that look for Him 
shall He appear, the second time without sin 
unto salvation.” “For by one offering He hath 
perfected forever them that are sanctified.” 
And the gracious Lord, in love, died for all who 
love Him, irrespective of name or denomina¬ 
tion, or no denomination, or no name; all, the all 
called, who love Him in truth, and look for His 
appearing. For both, He‘ that sanctifieth and 
they that are sanctified, are all of one, for which 
cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 
saying “I will declare Thy name unto my 
brethren; in the midst of the Church will I sing 
praises unto Thee.” 

“Wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him to 
be made like unto His brethren, that He might 
be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things 
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for 
the sins of the people.” 

What a marvelous, distinctive mission the 


THE CHURCH. 


109 


Lord graciously fulfilled; made like unto His 
brethren, not in the singular number, which, 
praise be His name, is also true, but made like 
unto His brethren in the plural number. All 
His brethren, the Pauline and Peterine, includ¬ 
ing all the manifold phases of individualism of 
manhood—“tasted death for every man; saving 
His people from their sins, the multitudinous 
sins of all who put their trust in Him.” Unit¬ 
ing in Him every possible shade and tint of 
complex humanity; founding the Church upon 
the broad and all-comprehensive principle, whose 
underlying spirit is love; not to the separating, 
but in uniting, “serving, the Lord.” Hot by 
the narrow, sectarian exclusion, but the gracious 
catholic inclusion of all who love the Saviour, 
in the broad, comprehensive sense which enables 
the Christian to shout in one blessed, harmoni¬ 
ous “thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ!” 

The written word ever taught the Church to 
encourage this sentiment among its members, 
recognizing that every one is a bom member in¬ 
to, and made part of, the body. Made, called, 
constituted, by virtue of birth, into the redeemed 
world, a potential, living member of the body. 


110 


THE CHURCH. 


Body corporeal, soul and spirit; this the Word 
makes known, not in any abstract reasoning of 
subtle man-made devisings, but in the God-given 
“elective grace.” Believing in the word teach¬ 
ings of Jesus, the great Fountain-head, the 
source of supply to all the streams that flow 
from Him. 

What a nonsensical delusion to set up the 
man-evolved theories of annihilation of the soul 
and body of man, who rejects the Gospel of the 
blessed Son of God, in the place of the word 
teaching of an eternal hell. In all fullness the 
believer accepts the revealed word testimony of 
salvation by grace, the doctrinal statement of 
justification, of the blood cleansing of the Christ 
power, through the Spirit indwelling, “to the 
praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He 
hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom 
we have redemption through His blood, the for¬ 
giveness of sins according to the riches of His 
grace.” Hot in the modem ideas of ecclesiol- 
ogy, however ably contributed by men of re¬ 
search, who accept the scholastic for the spir¬ 
itual, substituting criticism for revelation, ignor¬ 
ing prophecy by accepting the various teachings 
of sophistry. The safe, “sure word of promise,” 


THE CHURCH. 


Ill 


in perfect agreement to the “riches of His 
grace,” is the only basis of believers’ safety, not 
by adjustment, but forgiveness; not by improve¬ 
ment, but by salvation; not by remodeling the 
old way, but by a new and “living way,” the 
way of His appointment, the safe and “narrow 
way that leadeth unto life,” which “He hath 
consecrated for us.” Hot the way of intellec¬ 
tual discernment, nor the way of civilization. 
The route of progressing stages of human devel¬ 
opment, with its refined and charming culture, 
whose educational advantages the world so much 
admires. All these ways were opened up to a 
greater or less extent, to the eye of man for cen¬ 
turies, and all of them are admirable and blessed 
when directed aright. They had been in vogue 
long ere the Sermonizer began to preach his ever 
memorable “sermon on the mount.” The de¬ 
sign and purpose of the divine Founder of the 
Church was not simply to remodel the “old 
man.” Oh no, not to improve upon the old 
stock by enthusing new ideas of culture and 
social status, by administering palatable and ac¬ 
ceptable sophistry, by cutting off the external 
and visible objectional phases of his conduct, 
bringing him into the better order of society 


112 


THE CHURCH. 


with men; but a new creation, life heart, con¬ 
ception, love; new, new everything. New ideas 
of God, the all-eternal Father of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Mediator between God and man, the 
man Christ Jesus, a new Saviour; the new 
heaven and the new earth; the new all and all; 
the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier of the new man, 
who shall finally behold “old things passed away, 
and all things new,” in the larger and more com¬ 
prehensive sense of “beholding his Lord.” Dis¬ 
tinguished from the old, which taught external, 
rather than internal truth; temporal and change¬ 
able, subject to time and place; ceremonial and 
figurative; taught by the prophets, in those 
enigmatical forms which they themselves search 
diligently to know, what the “Spirit of Christ, 
which was in them, did signify.” 

Hence the old dispensation was symbolic and 
suggestive of sound-wise rather than sense-wise, 
emphasizing the external, whose cohesive power 
and motive were outward. The Church, then, is 
a new organization with redeemed material; new 
born, brought into living, personal relation; not 
born after the flesh, but of the Spirit; “bom of 
God;” the new truth, the recreation, the adopted 
by the Spirit’s inworking. It implies that no 


THE CHURCH. 


113 


/ 

man naturally ever would, or could, attain its 
life, its forgiveness to the natural man; its exact 
demands are impossible to the flesh. It is a life 
of faith, not of sight; seeing the “invisible things 
of God.” The new birth unites the believer in 
blessed, vital unity with the Lord; hence the be¬ 
liever can only get into Christ in living union, 
by getting out of the world (the love of it). 

The union is all of grace, and embraces all 
“the called,” “the elect,” maintained and en¬ 
ergized by the Holy Spirit, under whose gracious 
leadership believers discern the difference be¬ 
tween the natural son, Ishmael, and the son of 
promise, Isaac. By such they can see, and only 
they do see, the doings of the Lord in the mar¬ 
velous exhibition of grace, in his defining the 
spiritual sons and the natural man. They trace 
the truth in Abraham’s father, of the bond wo¬ 
man, Hagar’s child, the Ishmael of the plain, 
and the Isaac, of the married wife, Sarah, 
through whom should come the expected son. 

Hence believers are a product of grace, the 
body is of the Lord, and should delight with the 
Psalmist, who, under poetical formula, in those 
lofty strivings imaged forth to the Christ: “Be¬ 
hold how good and how pleasant it is for 


114 


THE CHURCH. 


brethren to dwell together in unity.” Long ere 
ecclesiastical counsels were convened to consider 
ecclesiastical comity, or the later denominational 
synods were called to decide their theological 
tenets, or sectarian observances, or the more 
modern rallies of Christian bodies in the annual 
conferences, extending fraternal and reciprocal 
greetings, beautiful and blessed as all these are, 
the unity of the believer was ever taught in the 
word by unification in love. Not from the 
cold, mechanical, external bonding together of 
the groups of believers into one organism in the 
assented conformity of creed and dogma; en¬ 
couraged and admonished by encyclical, led into 
the union of ecclesiastical irenica, by the man¬ 
designing pattern, but in the higher, nobler, 
sublimer soul-fullness of expansive, spiritual 
unity, which comprehends all who love the 
gracious sovereign Lord, the Redeemer of men. 
All attempts fail, and will continue to fail, be¬ 
cause man, and man’s spirit, is not stereotyped, 
artificial combination, looking to the organized 
unity in cold, concrete assent to a conformity, 
has ever been the fruitful source of the rank 
growth of Churchianity, with its baneful effect, 
in the Church of Christ on earth. 


THE CHURCH. 


115 


Mechanical and scholastic uniformity is not 
the basis of unity, however much it may com¬ 
mend itself to the attention of the ecclesiastical 
leaders. Man did ever, and will continue to, 
usurp his sphere, however well guarded and well 
thought out and arranged its plans; enacting 
laws one day, revoking the following day. Coun¬ 
cils and assemblies ever have been influenced by 
the external, to the neglect of the internal, in¬ 
dwellings of the Holy Spirit. It is the neglect 
of Him, not it, that produces all the discordant 
notes in the organization of men. Since the 
gracious Lord founded the Church, from the 
Pentecostal day, which witnessed the marvelous 
descent of the Holy Spirit. The only unifier in 
the Church is the Holy Spirit, and the recogni¬ 
tion of the love of the Spirit in His office work, 
uniting, sanctifying, leading; and under His 
leadership the only true unity can exist; not in 
the coterie of seclusion and exclusion, ignoring 
the gracious, broad guidance of Him, who is the 
duly authorized and fully equipped Guide to 
lead believers into all truth; not only a part of 
it, with the little independent flags waving over 
the narrow, circumscribed denominationalism, 
marching in step to their own attuned theolog- 


116 


THE CHURCH. 


ical sectarianism. It was the murmuring of the 
Grecian or Hellenist Jews against their Pales¬ 
tinian brethren, which led to such sore and cold 
formalism, that brought forth the Pauline cen¬ 
sure ; and were they any different to those 
brethren who are ever holding a certain phase 
of the truth, at the expense of all the truth? 

The charisma bestowed by the Holy Spirit 
indicated just what the brother’s work in the 
Church should be who was thus favored. It 
was a gift to be used and exercised for the edify¬ 
ing in love the brethren. The brother thus 
favored is exhorted: “Heglect not the gift that 
is in thee, which was given thee.” And further, 
is the exhortation, in its admonishing sense, to 
the recipient, that he.should be exemplary, to 
“take heed to thyself,” and “continue in them.” 
That is the “doctrine of the word.” The spir¬ 
itual gifts thus bestowed are to be guarded and 
watched with a jealous care, lest they be abused 
or misused. A study of the masterly letters to 
the Corinthian believers shows conclusively how 
exceedingly great and careful the recipient of 
the spiritual gifts should become. “Hot that we 
are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, 
but our sufficiency is of God.” And again, to the 


THE CHURCH. 


117 


Roman believers: “For I say, through the grace 
given unto me, to every man that is among you, 
not to think of himself more highly than he 
ought, but to think soberly, according as God 
hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. 
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and 
every one members of another.” 

The spiritual gifts are, then, for the edifying 
of the saints in love, not held and to be used in 
a mystical and mysterious, indefinable, vague 
mysticism, so diametrically opposed to the 
Spirit’s leading. The recipient of the gift in no 
sense agreeable to the word holds spiritual gifts 
as flowing down through the stream of apostolic 
succession. The charismata, the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, came to impinge upon the recipient 
in his development. Thus endowed, they 
preached and ministered the word to the 
Church, with the one, all-absorbing object in 
view, namely, the edifying of the believer in 
Christ. The Holy Spirit directing the use of 
the gift, expanding them as circumstances re¬ 
quired, to meet the ever progressive outstretch¬ 
ing of the company of believers in things wit¬ 
nessing to the truth, originating and adopting 
such methods and forms as were necessary for 


118 


THE CHURCH. 


the full expression of the life. They taught that 
spiritual character and eternal interest of the 
believer was wholly dependent upon a per¬ 
sonal relation to the Lord Christ, not in the er¬ 
roneous idea of the man-conceived conception 
of the priestly exercise of the function of the 
ecclesiastical priesthood, but rather making 
known the truth of Jesus, in displaying the be¬ 
liever’s personal relation to the Son of God; the 
recognition of the truth is of vital importance; 
unfaithfulness in this direction means serious 
results; its importance cannot be magnified; it 
is of great moment, and should be sought with 
all humbleness of spirit by self-renouncing, with 
a pure determination to possess it, “the Christ, 
his Lord,” for to Him belongs all the praise for 
the Exceeding riches of grace.” 

“God, who is rich in mercy, for His great 
love wherewith He loved us, that in the ages to 
come He might show the exceeding riches of His 
grace in His kindness toward us through Christ 
Jesus.” Mark you, through Christ Jesus, not 
through ecclesiasticism, but through “Christ 
Jesus,” in the fullest and most comprehensive 
sense; and it will be in like manner that all be¬ 
lievers can unite in Him, the central figure in 


THE CHURCH. 


119 


heaven, the most stupendous, sublime, lowly 
One who ever came to earth. Grace and truth 
came by Jesus Christ; it did not originate in 
convention, synod or seminary, but came by the 
Founder of the Church, and, praise be His name, 
sufficient grace for all the called according to 
His purpose in grace. This is not of the world, 
but of Him, who is “Head of all things.” 

“For by Him were all things created that are 
in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prin¬ 
cipalities, or powers; all things were created by 
Him and for Him; and He is before all things, 
and by Him all things consist. And He is the 
Head of the body, the Church, who is the be¬ 
ginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all 
things He might have the preeminence.” This 
was no sentimental notion of the gracious Lord, 
conceived by the Apostle Paul in his ardent, 
enthusiastic love and admiration for Christ, his 
Saviour, but on the contrary, he gave expression 
to the positive, moral conviction, which he, like 
all true men, experienced, who are led of the 
Spirit to “behold the Lord.” And thus led, he 
recognized the sacred responsibilities of making 
known the truth in love, at whatever cost of 


120 


THE CHURCH. 


suffering, physical or mental. He stood im¬ 
movable to the conviction, never surrendering 
one iota to any in bis royal adhesion to bis Lord. 
The distinctive mission of witnessing to the truth 
at all times, and at any cost, was ever held by 
him. He would not in a single instance violate 
truth for unity; however much he taught the 
blessed principle of “one in Christ,” it must be 
free from compromise. He taught believers to 
“hold fast,” not in the flabby, weak, boneless, 
pulpy idea, so broad and favorably commended 
by the followers of the new “conformity at any 
price school.” When the church at Colosse had 
occasion to send Epaphras, the ministering 
brother, to him, how very generous and Christly 
is the Pauline commendation, “Our dear fellow- 
servant, who is for you a faithful minister of 
Christ, who also declared unto us your love in 
the Spirit.” The declaration of the believers’ 
love to the Apostle by the minister, Epaphras, 
was clear and positive, expressing to him their 
esteem and fraternal regard in brotherly love. 


CHAPTER Y. 


THE GOSPEL TROTH THE ORDER TO CHRISTIAN DUTY 
IN THE CHURCH. 

John xv : 3.— Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto 
you. 

John xii: 48 .—He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My word, hath 
one that judgeth him ; the word that I have spoken, the same shall 
judge him in the last day. 

Rev. i : 3. —Blessed is he that readeth , and they that hear the words of 
this prophecy; and keep those things which are written therein, for 
the time is at hand. 

Truth, at all times, ever has, and ever will, 
abhor compromise. She, in all her advances, 
continues to strengthen, not by evasion, nor sur¬ 
render, but by affirmation. Her constant, un¬ 
erring course has ever been the one sublime con¬ 
firmation—hence her victory, holding the truth 
in love. “Sanctify them through the truth; 
Thy word is truth.” “And for their sakes I 
sanctify Myself, that they also might be sancti¬ 
fied through the truth.” Truth, then, is the 
true source of unity; not conformity, nor com¬ 
promise, nor comparison, but the word in truth. 
Led by Him “who worketh all things after the 
counsel of His own will.” “For it is God, which 
worketh in you, both to will and to do of His 
good pleasure.” External conformity will never 


122 


THE CHURCH. 


secure the internal unity. This is to be ac¬ 
complished in the blessed exercise of the love 
principle, grounded upon truth, and the truth 
only. The strife of organized Churchianity, 
which is such a barrier to the fuller development 
of the knowledge of the Gospel to every crea¬ 
ture, is an internecine struggle; the continual 
clashing of sectarian theology, now Calvin, then 
Armenian. Bring all the schools into the great 
class-room of the Master, sit at His gracious feet, 
learn of Him in love, do’His will, inquire the 
mind of the Lord “by the Spirit,” by connec¬ 
tion with Him, in close relation; lean closely 
upon Him, extracting the gracious sayings and 
doings of the Lord in love, one toward another. 

Truth is an order to duty, and the order of 
the day in the Church of God is the proclama¬ 
tion of the truth to every creature; not merely 
to satisfy conscience, as having discharged our 
duty, commendable as that is, but in love we 
must hold the faith. The word ever taught 
that faith and practice were inseparable. A 
man’s faith can only be shown by work, and 
vice versa , work can only be exhibited by faith. 
Hence the Apostle James, in his clear-cut, mas¬ 
terly letter to the believers at Jerusalem, “we 


THE CHURCH. 


123 


learn truth by obedience,” and obedience is the 
organ of the believer’s perception; it conveys 
to him the uptrend of spiritual development. 
The Lord Christ taught, in no uncertain sound, 
this truth, namely, “if any man will do His will, 
he shall know the doctrine.” It is doing the 
will, conformity to Christ’s will, not to the spec¬ 
ulative theology, or philosophy, but the will, 
the Master’s will; obedience to the will is the 
first step in the great highway. Knowledge of 
doctrine will as surely follow submission to the 
will of Christ, as the eternal, unfailing verities 
of the ever covenant keeping God, whose prom¬ 
ises are the yea and amen. The doctrinal and 
practical truths of the word are inseparable, and 
intimately united in blessed agreement. No 
man can rejoice in the possession of one, and 
neglect the other—they are inseparably united. 

To know God, then, is to know truth, for the 
truth is of its Author, and all truth, like God, 
its Author, is eternal and unchangeable. So, 
whatever is essentially true must remain and be 
so at all times, and under all circumstances, 
whether it be truth of religion, philosophy, or 
science, irrespective of the ever changing and 
variable vacillating reasonings of men. Truth 


124 


THE CHURCH. 


is, in its very essence, changeless and eternal as 
God. The great reason for inquiry into the truth, 
by waiting upon the mind of the Lord, through 
the Spirit’s divine illuminating, is to see the 
truth in the light of God, and in His light; see 
the progressive life of the believer, in all its 
actualization by the Spirit developing healthy, 
lovable men in Christ Jesus, fulfilling all the 
functions of ministering the truth in its beauty 
and simplicity. “Stand fast in one spirit, with 
one mind striving together for the faith of the 
Gospel.” “Earnestly contend for the faith 
which was once delivered unto the saints.” 
“How I beseech you, brethren, mark them 
which cause divisions and offences, contrary to 
the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid 
them.” “For they that are such serve not our 
Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by 
good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts 
of the simple.” The written word is the one 
authority in the Church for appeal in all ques¬ 
tions ; it is the revelation of God, making known 
the truth to the believer of the rules, commands 
and wishes of our all-Father, as our moral Gov¬ 
ernor, making known, under full and explicit 
formula, the rule of life, the law in regard to 


THE CHURCH. 


125 


every action, be it good or bad. It is a rule or 
code of sufficient announcement, whether con¬ 
scientiously used as the moral standard or not. 
It is of ample announcement to teach the re¬ 
newed man, and thus taught, it constitutes him 
a responsible being, as his possession of con¬ 
scious will and freedom attest. And further, it is 
the revealed will of God in the written word, 
teaching believers by admonishing them to stand 
fast in the unity of the Spirit, contending for 
the faith in blessed uniformity, to the mind of 
the Spirit in love, not by expulsion, but by the 
unity of impulsion, toward “Him who called us 
into the fellowship of His grace.” 

The word, in clear and vivid outline, por¬ 
trays what believers ought to be in their char¬ 
acter, conduct and life toward one another, in 
well defined determination of the grounds of 
moral distinction, of the criterion of rightness 
and wrongness in conduct. The conditions of 
virtue in the sphere of conscience, in its opera¬ 
tion, by directing believers in their brotherly 
relation in all the diversified realms of human 
economy and duty, and, under the Spirit’s tui¬ 
tion, enabling them to interpret, systematize and 
intellectually state the word’s meaning concern- 


126 


THE CHURCH. 


ing the whole sphere of the believer’s obliga¬ 
tion to his God. And further, the word treats 
of man’s obligation as viewed in the light of the 
redemption by Christ, as subjective, attaining 
and retaining the grace of salvation; its criteria 
is ever sound, its judgments ever correct, its 
ethics true, its truth consistent; its descriptions 
accurate, its narration reliable; its results beyond 
and above all the cumulative stores of science 
and philosophy; its lights are sure and radiant; 
it embraces effects, with their causes; its phe¬ 
nomena sublime; it stands in contrast incom¬ 
parable to all; it is the revelation of the love of 
God toward us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Not 
a scheme, hut a plan, written by men trained in 
thinking, in the highest culture, as the Holy 
Ghost directed. Every doctrine of the word, 
“line upon line,” and “precept upon precept,” 
filling and fitting its right place, irrespective of 
all human criticism, to the contrary. It is the 
unchallenged, unimpeached authority to all be¬ 
lievers, making known the truth that He has 
called “a people for His name,” whom He hath 
redeemed with His own precious blood, whose 
rule should he love, whose joy should abound 
in Him. Hence every body of believers should 


TIIE CHURCH. 


127 


recognize His will supreme in all things, remem¬ 
bering, “we love Him because He first loved 
us;” and this glorious principle should be the 
working doctrine of every disciple of the Lord, 
the spiritual lever, enabling all the called, 
through the operation of the Spirit, to walk in 
the higher altitude of grace, in holiness of life, 
without which no man shall behold the Lord. 

Love to Christ is the test bond of the believer, 
holding him in close, practical relationship by a 
personal, living union; the germ-life of holiness, 
in its operation of expansive development, con¬ 
tinues in its uptrend of progressive, spiritual, 
completed maturity. What a gracious appeal 
to believers is their union with Christ in love, 
“that we should believe on the name of His 
Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He 
gave us commandment.” “Beloved, let us love 
one another, for love is of God, and every one 
that loveth is bom of God, and knoweth God.” 
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to 
love one another.” The great knowledge of the 
Father is a revelation of His unchanging love 
toward the believer, revealing His all-sufficient 
tenderness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

What a sweeping survey of the spiritual hor- 


128 


THE CHURCH. 


oscope, this love principle in the Church of 
Christ is presented to the gaze of the believer! 
What a call for Christian unity—an inspiration 
to long for the dawning of the day’s dawn, when 
all the redeemed shall be in the way of the Lord. 
“Seeing you have purified your souls in obey¬ 
ing the truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned 
love of the brethren, see that ye love one an¬ 
other with a pure heart, fervently.” The writ¬ 
ten word supports this proposition by over¬ 
whelming, reiterated, corroborated testimony. 
It is necessary to the true worship and knowl¬ 
edge of the right relation and communion with 
God, the only true basis for the believer’s dis¬ 
charge of spiritual obligation—the evidence of 
change of heart, and a personal trust that brings 
reconciliation to the Lord, gives the impetus to 
the filial begotten life of faith, and stimulates 
to patient perseverance. That is the one ever dis • 
tinguishing mark, characterizing the child of the 
King. It leads along the passageways of godly 
sorrow by developing true repentance; not in 
the selfish, nor servile, carnal sense, but in the 
general, broad obligation that God placed upon 
all, by remembering “that God commanded all 
men, everywhere, to repent.” 


THE CHURCH. 


129 


This principle, working in love, is an entire 
change of soul, through the grace of Him who 
is exalted—a “Prince and Saviour”—“to give 
repentance unto all that call upon Him.” It is 
further necessary to holiness of living, by produc¬ 
ing the cordial acceptance of the blessed hope of 
the Gospel, by a clear and vivid realization of the 
truth, unfolding the substance of “things hoped 
for” in love, producing a personal trust in God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation. 
It enables the believer to exercise the faith fac¬ 
ulty, expanding the mental and spiritual con¬ 
ceptions by opening the understanding, clearing 
the eye to see “Him in His beauty,” by placing 
the living realities of the “eternal and invisible.” 

The Church of the Lord, then, is a company 
of persons of many names, and yet of one “call¬ 
ing in grace;” of several diversities, of one 
Spirit; made sons of God by adoption, through 
the gracious, unmerited act, acceptable by God, 
through the Lord Jesus Christ; and glory be to 
God, it is the one blessed relation that every be¬ 
liever sustains, irrespective of any and all the 
outward and visible forms of worship, if he is a 
believer; and to every one that believeth the 
written word declares, “I will be to him a 


130 


THE CHURCH. 


Father, and he shall be to Me a son.” “I will 
be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons 
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 
“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of 
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according 
to the good pleasure of His will, I will receive 
you.” Believers are born from above; they are 
the “bom again,” the work of the Holy Ghost, 
in its recreating function, thus making a “new 
man,” born into the family of God. “Where¬ 
fore thou art no more a servant, but a son, then 
an heir of God through Christ.” “Heirs ac¬ 
cording to the promise.” This the Holy Spirit 
makes known to the believer in the regenerative 
work, in filial love, sustained toward the all- 
Father, and every believer as His brother, by 
striving to conform in love subjectively, as we 
are encouraged to believe; in that day we shall 
all be objectively in the glorious likeness of our 
gracious Lord. 

The growing and continuous striving for the 
unification of believers is not a mere visionary 
sentimentalism of a select few; certainly not the 
exclusive property of a portion of the body, but 
is the property of the universal body, and to be 
desired by all the members, who are the called, 


THE CHURCH. 


131 


and have named the Lord, and love Him in 
sincerity and truth. Our divine Lord gave His 
commandment, and it has never been repealed 
by the court of heaven; neither has it been 
abridged, nor abrogated. The royal, imperial 
command is that “ye love one another, that ye 
may be one,” addressed to all, applicable to all, 
enjoined upon all, extended to all, and gra¬ 
ciously conferred upon all and for all “who love 
His appearing.” 

The every member, then, agreeable to the writ¬ 
ten word, is a born member into the household 
of faith. He enjoys the exalted privileges of son- 
ship, and consequently is favored with effectual 
grace that regenerates, to live in the assurance 
of being a child. And further, the believer dis¬ 
covers the progressive development of the new 
life, is strengthened just in proportion as he uses 
the “milk of the word,” growing up into man¬ 
hood in Christ Jesus, in obedience and holiness, 
in the “fear of the Lord.” Hence the life, the 
new life, is a continuous career of obedience and 
holiness in filial love, yielding the peaceable fruits 
of the Spirit in righteousness, equity, virtue, god¬ 
liness, mercy, and all the graces of the cleansed 
inner life shown by the external walk and 


132 


THE CHUKCH. 


godly deportment, with becoming conversation, 
with perseverance and patience, maintaining the 
position of being in, but not of the world, living 
righteously and piously under all the trying ex¬ 
periences of the flesh and the devil, with the 
multiplied temptations and the ever growing ills 
of life, involved by being assailed from all sides 
of the pathway of our tribulation; maintaining 
to the end love to all, the great standard proof 
of being born from above; developing spiritu¬ 
ally, notwithstanding surrounded upon all the 
manifold phases of the mortal life with the 
carnal, fleshly manifestation of the old, previous 
nature, which is ever upon the alert to send out 
its old sap-life, to bring again into bondage the 
children of liberty. 

The believer is encouraged in the patient per¬ 
severance by remembering his Lord bid him 
“watch and pray, lest he enter into temptation.” 
His faith-life is developed only by continual 
vigilance in stepping in the foot-prints of Jesus, 
his Lord; and from the day of his conversion to 
the day of his joyous entry into the portals of 
Paradise, he is admonished, in the written word, 
the visible and the Spirit, the invisible monitor, 
to walk by faith, in devoted submission, “look- 


THE CHURCH. 


133 


ing unto Jesus.” Meanwhile he should exer¬ 
cise diligence to exemplify and defend the priv¬ 
ileges of the Gospel by promoting the spread of 
the knowledge of it to every creature, through 
every available agency, being enthusiastic for it; 
by a zealous desire for the glory of his Lord he 
will be instrumental in enkindling enthusiasm 
among his brethren for the extension of the 
borders to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

Believers everywhere recognize the fact that 
they must champion its cause by their testimony 
to the saving effects of the Gospel, and by a 
tender and gentle, but positive firmness, stand 
against all and every heretical teaching that 
would set aside the doctrine of grace, through 
the atonement, against all oppression and in¬ 
justice which endanger the extension of the 
King’s business, namely, the salvation of souls. 
And further, against all usurpation of lordship 
over the Church of Christ by any and all the 
man-made and man-evolved ecclesiastical gra¬ 
dations, recognizing one Lord and Master in the 
Church, even Jesus Christ, her Founder; and 
“all brethren, one in Christ,” ever bearing in 
mind, he that would be “greatest, let him be 
least,” but ever ready to recognize, and hail with 


134 


THE CHURCH. 


delight, all who love the Saviour and Kedeemer 
in the blessed unity of love, in the bond of peace. 

Again, every shade of Christian life should 
be used to the praise and glory of Christ; to the 
propagation of the truth. Every believer is 
placed under a direct obligation to use every and 
all, to the utmost of his ability, by exerting his 
personal influence, time, money, thought, all 
consecrated to the view of extending the princi¬ 
ple to every creature, in love. “Love to all 
men;” ever bearing in mind, “let your light so 
shine before all men,” his life, his example, his 
“all and all,” to shine to the praise and glory 
of the risen Lord; spreading the seed by sowing 
the truth, permeating every class, every com¬ 
munity, every tribe, “that, as sin hath reigned 
unto death, even so might grace reign through 
righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ, 
our Lord.” This is the distinctive province of 
every member of the body, individually, and of 
the entire body, collectively. The great work 
of making known the truth of Jesus Christ; 
called to the work by the express command, “Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to 
every creature.” 

The Church is thus constructed expressly to 


THE CHURCH. 


135 


embody and diffuse the Gospel to all men, every¬ 
where; and her sufficiency for strength depends 
upon Him, her Redeemer and Life; consecrated 
to Him with entire dependence upon His all- 
sufficiency to supply any need; ever remember¬ 
ing, “as thy day, so thy strength shall be.” This 
is the promise to all the called. 

The body of believers is more than a tempo¬ 
rary expedient to meet the emergencies of battle 
and contentious strife, whilst learning “experi¬ 
ence through tribulation,” but a well thought 
out and completed plan, originated by Him, 
“who sees the end from the beginning,” leading 
believers, by the Spirit, to the witnessing to 
those distinctive principles of faith, hope and 
charity, which the early company taught and 
enjoined upon all for the extension of the king¬ 
dom of our Lord upon earth. The acknowl¬ 
edgment of this principle by the entire body 
would be a long, progressive stride toward the 
securing of mutual love in all phases of Church 
life. The high churchman, the low churchman, 
the broad churchman, and the so-called no¬ 
churchman, could all come into fraternal asso- 
ciational unity in the spread of the blessings of 
making known the knowledge of the “common 


186 


THE CHURCH. 


salvation” to all men. The polity of the Church 
is love, not simply a catena of articles of religion, 
bodied forth under the so-called ecclesiastical 
authority, given with all the arrogance and 
usurpation, so sadly at variance with the love 
principle of the written word, which so gra¬ 
ciously displays the grace of God to all men. 
“For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, 
hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, de¬ 
nying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should 
live soberly, righteously and godly in this pres¬ 
ent world; looking for that blessed hope and the 
glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us, 
that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works.” 

The word of God is to all men. The salva¬ 
tion taught is a full, free, all-sufficient, satisfac¬ 
tory, God-approved and reconciling. “I gave 
all diligence to write unto you of the common 
salvation.” Blessed and praised be our God. 
It is a common salvation, to all and upon all. 
The written word is full of divine instruction, 
able to make wise unto this blessed common 
salvation, to every creature who, with diligence, 


/ 


THE CHURCH. 


137 


in the continual well doing, obeys in serving the 
Lord. It is no iron mask to shield only the am¬ 
bitious in the man-patterned tents, which man 
pitched, and not the Lord. External uniform¬ 
ity in ecclesiastical, detailed minutiae is not the 
Saviour’s teaching. He never taught, during 
His ministry in earth, such a basis for unity, by 
a system of worthless impounding in the ob¬ 
ligatory senses of compulsion; He graciously 
recognized the divergent spirits of men in all 
their complexed relation, and ample scope was 
accordingly given for the happy, harmonious 
exercise of the diversity of the Spirit’s opera¬ 
tion through the diversified, many-hued phases 
of spiritual formula. Ho ordained, ecclesias¬ 
tical arrangement of ordinance had been estab¬ 
lished and proclaimed, excepting the ordinance 
of baptism and the Lord’s supper. The apostolic 
teachers were exceedingly careful not to intrude 
upon the early believer any observance or min¬ 
istration other than warranted by their local 
limits. The mere outward forms of the simplest 
character were adhered to; the preaching of the 
good news of the glad tidings of great joy was 
the unvarying mission of the teacher of the 
Apostolic Church; not the care about the so- 


138 


THE CHURCH. 


called incidentals, with the accompanying more 
modern essentials. They remembered the com¬ 
mand, “Go, teach.” This was the order of the 
day; not issuing decrees of hierarchical con¬ 
claves, but the joyous making known “His 
word,” and observing the two outward and 
visible ordinances among all who believed and 
embraced the Gospel. Thus far, and no farther. 
Beyond this it is unsafe to intrude upon the 
body of believers by absolute imposition of any 
external system of worship to compel mere uni¬ 
formity of condition. “The Lord reigns;” He 
is supreme; lie is all-sufficient, and all believers 
are of the spiritual communion. The Gospel 
tie is of sufficient strength to hold the bonded 
together in love; not in churchly restraint, with 
its priestly fashioned lock, whose key is within 
the ecclesiastical coffer, subject to the will of 
man. The true basis of unity is the Word’s 
basis, equality in love; not the simple, intel¬ 
lectual equality and uniformity, by a mere 
mechanical union, with its rule and regulation, 
accepted and rejected at pleasure. The changes 
in human circumstances, with its ebb and flow 
life, in the generation of developing progression 
render the actual perfection of outward union 


THE CHURCH. 


139 


impossible, unless based upon the Word’s basis, 
the love principle. “In righteousness shalt thou 
be established; thou shalt be far from oppres¬ 
sion.” “No weapon that is formed against thee 
shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise 
against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.” 
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the 
righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” 

This is the union in Him, not in the deifying 
of Churchism, which has ever been the stair-bar 
to the uptrend of individualism which our Lord 
ever taught, and so suggestively shown in His 
associations among men. In the memorable 
parable of the leaving of the “ninety and nine,” 
to go after the lost sheep, and going until He 
found it, returning with it upon His shoulders; 
and it is thus the Lord graciously seeks, finds 
and bears each and every believer; not the lost 
sheep seeking the fold, but the Shepherd gra¬ 
ciously seeking the lost sheep, which had strayed 
far beyond any possible return of its own voli¬ 
tion; but the Shepherd sought and found. Be¬ 
lievers are the found ones of the Shepherd, who 
is able to keep them. “My sheep hear My voice, 
and I know them, and they follow Me; and I 
give unto them eternal life, and they shall never 


140 


THE CHURCH. 


perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of 
My hand.” “I am the good Shepherd and know 
My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the 
Father knoweth Me, even so I the Father, and I 
lay down My life for the sheep. And other 
sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; 
and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.” 

The Lord Christ, in the exercise of His loving 
service, not only keeps the sheepfold, but seeks 
the lost sheep, never deserting His chosen, ever 
watchful, different from every other shepherd in 
that He lay down His life, reversing all other. 
So different from all the man-made shepherds; 
not the sheep dying for the shepherd, but the 
Shepherd dying for the sheep. Is this not the 
love principle, so graciously and sublimely dis¬ 
played? Did ever, in all the annals of human 
history, mortal man behold such a singular and 
unique exhibition of love? Is it not a majestic 
portrayal of the tender, loving kindness of our 
Saviour toward His redeemed? The Apostle 
Peter emphasized the glorious truth when he 
exhorted the elders to “feed the flock of God, 
which is among you, taking the oversight 
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not 


THE CHURCH. 


141 


for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.” Neither 
as being lords over God’s heritage, but be¬ 
ing examples to the flock. This is the sphere 
of the ministers and teachers—feeding the 
flock (not bleeding the flock); not by lord¬ 
ing it over God’s heritage, but in “humble¬ 
ness of mind,” recognizing “but we have this 
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency 
of the power may be of God, and not of us.” 
“For we preach not of ourselves, but of Christ 
Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for 
Jesus’ sake.” Ministering the word to the be¬ 
liever in blessed spiritual unity, which is in thor¬ 
ough agreement and consistent with much out¬ 
ward diversity. It is real, operative and per¬ 
manent; a living body, with live members, horn 
into it from above; not a dead body, with death¬ 
like uniformity, but a living, lively body, in all 
its lifelike, multiform, increasing, developing, 
growing up “into the holy temple.” Lively 
stones, set by a wise Masterbuilder, whose con¬ 
ception of unity consists in diversity; to every 
man his work, and to every man his sphere. This 
is true unification, unity in motive; not unity in 
external organism, with its balanced poise and 
stereotyped gradations, however plausible and 


142 


THE CHURCH. 


paternal. External unity is of man, but in¬ 
ternal, spiritual unity is of the Lord; a unity of 
desire, by which all believers are enabled to 
strive to attain the blessed one mind and hope. 
One character, one godlikeness, one presence of 
the Lord; one desire above all else, the advance¬ 
ment of knowledge of the glory of the Head of 
the Church. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 

Roman xvi: 17, 18 .—Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which 
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have 
learned, and avoid them. 

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their 
own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts 
of the simple. 

I Corinthians xii: 25, 26, 27. — That there should be no schism in the 
body; but that the members should have the same care one for 
another. 

And whether one member suffer , all the members suffer with it; 
or one member be honored all the members rejoice with it. 

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 

John x : 16 .—And other sheep I have which are not of thisfold; them 
also 1 must bring , and they shall hear My voice; and there shall 
be one fold, and one Shepherd, 

The believers’ unity as expressed in the word, 
is a unity of relation to Him, who is Head of all 
things, and, as such, joining together in one 
body, in infinite strength, all the vast multitude 
by one eternal, indissoluble, united relation in 
Him. 

The Church of Christ is perfectly consistent 
with the entire actual, operative unity, and in 
perfect agreement with outward diversity. 
Man’s spirit cannot be stereotyped, much less 

143 


144 


THE CHURCH. 


can it be gauged by any standard of men; every¬ 
where, and at all times throughout his earthly 
life, he will, and ever has differed in opinion, 
judgment, perception and conclusion; differed 
not in their loyalty to the sovereign Lord, but 
in their external expression of loyalty, in wide 
difference of judgment upon many non-essential 
points of mere intellectual perception, with very 
marked difference of opinion concerning truth 
progressively understood. 

The Church is constituted of many different 
members of all shades and hues of outward, 
visible expression, but one body, with one com¬ 
mon Lord and Saviour; hence no one portion 
can assume or arrogate to itself the title “The 
Church,” to the exclusion of other believers, any 
more than the eye can exclude the ear, or the 
tongue the hand. It requires each and all the 
members to constitute the body.. Both eye and 
ear, tongue and hand, etc., each of the members 
are useless if detached from the body. Of what 
use would the hand be, separated from the head, 
or the foot? It would be useless; but in unity 
with the body it fulfils its place effectively, just 
in proportion as it is united and healthy, dis¬ 
charging its function in its organic relation to 


THE CHURCH. 


145 


the whole body. It was not agreeable to the 
purpose of the divine Founder of the Church to 
entrust all knowledge, all wisdom, all the mani¬ 
fold purposes in grace, all the desires of the 
Spirit to one set of believers, to the exclusion of 
the others, but wisely gave gifts differing ac¬ 
cording to the several abilities. “Having, then, 
gifts according to the grace that is given unto 
us.” This is all of grace, broad and compre¬ 
hensive, to admit all the called unto the joyous 
fellowship of the communion of saints. This is 
agreeable to the written word, from the memor¬ 
able time when the Lord was graciously pleased 
to call the disciples, and taught them the blessed 
truth of the kingdom. Not the slightest allu¬ 
sion is assumed of supremacy, on the part of the 
brethren, in the upper room, when the Lord had 
girded the towel about His loins, and washed 
their feet; it was no exception when the mother 
of Zebedee’s children made her request. The 
Lord reprobated such a notion of superiority, 
and in the most marked and decided manner ex¬ 
pressed His disapproval. The believers from 
the first church at Jerusalem, with its able pas¬ 
tor, the Apostle James, ministering to it, made 
no attempt to lord it over the believers at An- 


146 


THE CHURCH. 


tioch, Syria, or Cilicia; they were all enjoying 
the blessed love principle, and to the companies 
of believers the church at Jerusalem assisted by 
counseling and comforting them in the matter 
of the Judaizing teachings, but in no sense with 
the pretentious ecclesiastical dictation of the 
man-made idea of supremacy. 

The Church of Christ is founded in the clear 
and emphatic teaching of the word of our Lord 
Jesus Christ: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the living God,” the positive statement of the 
Apostle Peter in response to the direct ques¬ 
tion the Lord asks: “Whom say ye that I am?” 
On this clear, positive confession the Church is 
built, and upon this confession believers are bap¬ 
tized into His name. On this broad and all- 
comprehensive confession the Ephesian believers 
rejoiced in the joyous consciousness of “ye are 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief 
corner-stone.” Whom say ye, not whom say 
you. Go, preach the Gospel to every creature. 
Ho one, nor all of the company of the disciples, 
was the rock, because “other foundation can no 
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 
All drink the same spiritual drink; for they 


THE CHURCH. 


147 


drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, 
and that Rock was Christ. The Rock Christ 
Jesus, not “Thou art Petrus (Peter, a stone), 
but on this Petra (a rock) I will build My 
Church.” Not upon Petrus, and upon this 
Petrus, I will build My Church. Be careful to 
observe the change in the words—Petrus and 
Petra. It was on this Petra-rock—I will build 
My Church. Not Petrus, praise be to the Lord 
Christ. He is the Rock, the Petra, upon which 
the whole body rests. He is the sure Founda¬ 
tion; upon Him the entire Church is builded 
together. 

According to the eternal purpose, which He 
purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord, “to the in¬ 
tent that now unto the principalities and power 
in heavenly places might be known, by the 
Church, the manifold wisdom of God.” The 
Church of the living God; the pillar and ground 
of the truth. “I am the way, the truth, and 
the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by 
Me.” This is the one blessed, all-essential truth 
which needs no higher critic to give some mod¬ 
ern ingenious explanation, but the clear, simple, 
plain, all-comprehensive statement of our Lord: 
“Look unto the Rock whence ye are hewn.” 


148 


THE CHURCH. 


“Rooted and grounded in the faith, ye are built 
up a spiritual house, to offer up spiritual sacri¬ 
fice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Be¬ 
lieve, rejoice in the sufficiency of the canonical 
books of the written word, teaching all things 
necessary to salvation, the efficacy of faith alone 
for the believer’s justification. The blood of 
the everlasting covenant, in all its efficacious 
effects in the redemptive work of our Lord. Not 
in the monotonous dead level of the barren plane 
of human sophistry to secure conformity to the 
ecclesiastical polity, but to secure a unity of 
soul, with all the ardor and freshness of the re¬ 
newed nature in grace; adoring the ever ador¬ 
able Son with all saints in the blessed unification 
of the Spirit, in working to the praise of Him 
who bought us, and made us priests and kings 
unto God. 

It is the revealed word, making known upon 
its every page, to the “opened eye” of the be¬ 
liever, the gracious invitations, offers and warn¬ 
ings of the Gospel; its every proclamation 
plainly presented to the notice; its influence 
upon the believer is a direct appeal by the Holy 
Spirit to the conscience, and the heart within 
the Spirit quickens, bringing the truth of the 


THE CHURCH. 


149 


word in power, selecting and directing by mak¬ 
ing. “Thy people shall be willing in the day 
of thy power,” because of those truths of the 
written word to the believer. “Our Gospel 
came not unto you in word only, but also in 
power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much as¬ 
surance.” Power and assurance is the word to 
believers in the strictest and most entire sense; 
in love, in spiritual aid, and in the operation of 
the Spirit. What joy of blessed unity is here 
taught, in which man, the intelligent man, the 
creation of God, the all-wise Creator, renewed in 
love, called unto the relationship with the Father 
through the Son, by the grace abounding toward 
us, by the Spirit, in bringing into the knowledge 
of the saving truths of the Gospel. The grace 
of God in the heart, demanding all the united 
attention to develop its full growth for its con¬ 
tinuance in constant watchfulness against the 
manifold attacks to which he is exposed; dangers 
from within and from without, requiring un¬ 
ceasing earnestness and care to live godly in 
Christ Jesus. Whilst in the Church militant 
ever encouraged to earnest and assiduous effort 
to maintain and retain his standing by the cul¬ 
tivation within of the Spirit in holiness, and no 


150 


THE CHUECH. 


better or surer proof can possibly be bad of be¬ 
ing effectually called into the fellowship of the 
Lord than the strivings of the soul to become 
conformed to the image of the Son, by being 
“transformed by the renewing of the mind.” 
The affections, subjectively in submission, and 
objectively toward the will of Christ, in obedi¬ 
ence, just as in the unrenewed man, he is, and 
ever will be, wholly and completely under the 
dominion of sin; so the renewed man should be 
completely and entirely in the dominion of 
grace, his life, his all in his Lord. Now, in a 
limited measure, finally in its fullest capacity; 
in continual, unchanging holiness. This is the 
standard the Gospel reveals, in love, to the be¬ 
liever in all its blessed fullness. Now like the 
little rill, coursing its way down and through 
the channels to the larger streams, until freed 
from all impediments, to the great ocean. So 
the redeemed soul shall flow on and on, ever in 
continual, increasing conformity, in blessed ex¬ 
pansion, approaching day by day, more and 
more, by the fuller and larger currents of joy as 
he nears the perfect fullness of his Lord in com¬ 
ing “unto the Mount Zion, and unto the city of 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 


THE CHURCH. 


151 


to an innumerable company of angels, to the 
general assembly and Church of the firstborn, 
which is written in heaven, and to God, the 
Judge of all, and to the Spirit of just men made 
perfect.” 

This the word reveals to the believer, that he 
shall come; not yet arrived; not yet attained, but 
to obtain in that day. Meanwhile each victory, 
each trial overcome, each successive step in the 
uptrend is nearing that innumerable company 
of spirits of just men made perfect; perfect in 
unity, in the love of it, in the glorious enjoy¬ 
ment of it. Can a believer contemplate the vast 
assemblage around the throne, in triumphant, 
exalting praises to the Lamb, with cold, stereo¬ 
typed, formal ecclesiasticism, and be content 
with it? Oh no; the true believer will cast the 
spiritual, wistful eye toward Canaan’s land in 
longing, loving expectation, where all the re¬ 
deemed of the Lord, in triumphant unity, are 
crying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” 
The host of the redeemed in blessed and con¬ 
tinual unison; when the appetites of the flesh 
and sense have no more exercise, but have all 
ceased and gone with the perishing body, to 
which they belonged. The spiritual warpings 


152 


THE CHURCH. 


and iniquities of the soul, with their accompany¬ 
ing rebellion and false pride, which ever had 
such sway over the old nature, shall have no 
authority or dominion in that other and better 
Church triumphant, “where all the joys are one; 
whose delight is in the Lamb forever; whose en¬ 
joyment is the praises to His name; whose long¬ 
ing is for the Fountain of water, which the 
glorified have so abundantly provided for all 
that love Him; where the saved man is the pos¬ 
session forever and forever of his Lord. 

Hence the Church militant should strive for 
the blessed unity with all the called to come, 
more and more, into close and living relation 
with one another; pressing onward; encouraging 
and upholding the love principle, whilst hope¬ 
fully climbing home to God, who will make us 
more than conquerors. Is it not a fruitful 
thought for consideration, to rise up and above 
the narrow confines of man-made and man- 
evolved Churchianity, into the broadening 
spheres of Christianity; to pass out and beyond 
all the clashing of sects, whose ever changing 
creeds and polities and manifold rivalries have, 
and ever will continue to, produce divisions and 
subdivisions, with their bitter theological tenets 


THE CHURCH. 


153 


and sectarian Controversy, so destructive to the 
unity of the bond of peace? 

What a marked contrast between the man¬ 
made community and the spirit-born commun¬ 
ion! The most striking difference exists. The 
one based upon ecclesiastical formula, whose 
constitution, in its very life, is external and out¬ 
ward, visible, temporal; the other internal, sim¬ 
ple, spiritual. The line of demarcation between 
the external community and the internal com¬ 
munion is so wide it needs no further com¬ 
ment. A simple comparison were enough. The 
believer should follow the Holy Spirit, the 
Guide into all truth, exercising, by acknowledg¬ 
ing toward every brother in the Lord, the spirit 
of toleration in regard to things non-essential, 
holding the servant accountable to his Master, 
to whom he shall render account. It is unto his 
Master he “standeth or falleth.” It were 
enough that the Lord pass upon every man’s 
work, who judgeth aright. Not from without, 
but from within, the purpose, motive, aim, de¬ 
sire, all pass under the scrutiny of His august 
eye, that surveys the end from the beginning. 

How important this principle in love, in its 
widest and broadest sense! It is just precisely 


154 


THE CHUECH. 


what the Gospel of the blessed hope inspires in 
the heart of believers; unity among men who 
believe; the true end to which the operation of 
the Holy Spirit ever trends; and ever, and at all 
times, wherever the Holy Spirit rules alone in 
blessed official exercise of guiding into truth, 
man comes into the loving relation of brother in 
the Lord; and just as gatherings of men and wo¬ 
men are led of the Spirit in worship, just so far 
are they free from the pernicious system of per¬ 
verting and corrupting the word’s teaching. 
The mutilated and man-made plans of exalting 
external, to the neglect of internal, spiritual wor¬ 
ship; and just as the Holy Spirit directs the be¬ 
liever into spiritual recognition, just so far does 
he worship the Lord acceptably. Worship is 
agreeable to, and must embrace, the truth. 
“God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, 
must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Un¬ 
der whatever mode or form of expression, it must 
be spiritual to be acceptable worship. It is not 
a unity of judgment and apprehension among 
one common brotherhood, nor the mere unity in 
intellectual, scholarly agreement of well defined 
creeds, however perfect in their grammatical 
and cultured phraseology, expressing certain 


THE CHURCH. 


155 


views of doctrine by external motions and genu¬ 
flections, but the liberty of soul expression be¬ 
fore the Lord, in the joyous exercise of the free¬ 
dom wherewith the truth hath set us free. Free¬ 
dom, not license, but gloriously to praise the 
Lord in the fullest conception of the liberty of 
sonship; not entangled with the bondage of the 
old economy, with its numberless ordinances and 
divers washings, which have long since ceased. 
“For the law having a shadow of good things to 
come, and not the very image of the things, can 
never, with those sacrifices which they offered, 
year by year, continually make the comers 
thereunto perfect. For then would they not have 
ceased to be offered, because that the worship¬ 
pers, once purged, should have had no more con¬ 
science of sins.” It is not the old system of the 
law to govern worship, with its external and 
exacting, detailed minutiae, that is to control the 
individual, or the congregation, or collection of 
Church, but on the contrary, it is the worship 
of the Lord in the Spirit, and thus worshipping, 
assisting one another in mutual edification; to 
be of one mind; to love as brethren; to extend 
the courteous, lovable, Christly characteristics 
toward one another, according to Jesus Christ, 


156 


THE CHUKCH. 


our common sovereign Lord. This is the one 
governing principle, influencing, extending, em¬ 
bracing all who love our Lord in true sincerity; 
and should they differ, it must be as Christians, 
but differ only as Christians in the blessed 
brotherhood in the love of the Lord; not by con¬ 
tentious envy or railings, but holding the love 
principle; not in divisions and strife, against 
which the written word so frequently admonishes 
the believer, because it is carnal, and the saved 
man is to walk according to the new rule, com¬ 
municating peace and mercy to all the called 
unto the “Israel of God.” 

The Apostle echoed the language of the 
Master by continually enjoining upon all the 
churches they planted this truth of affectionate 
regard for one another; not by a tyrannical over¬ 
sight. An unloving Christian is a parody upon 
the Church; it is not possible to be in the body 
and not to imbibe the spirit of its love principle. 
An implacable Christian is a contradiction in 
terms. Believers may, and often do, entertain 
differences, and cling and hold tenaciously to 
certain views of truth, with all the apparent 
ardor and enthusiasm, bordering upon bigotry; 
and the very intensity of their devotion to cer- 


THE CHUKCH. 


157 


tain phases of truth, to the exclusion of other 
and equally important truths, savoring of men, 
of the narrow, contracting, worldly-minded; and 
yet this is all possible; but an implacable, irre¬ 
concilable, unforgiving Christian is utterly im¬ 
possible. 

When difference exists relative to denomina¬ 
tional expressions of doctrinal truths, they can 
and do differ, but should in love, not in the cold 
indifference of entire separation and cessation, 
or in actual hostile dislike. Believers are not 
only a community, but a communion, and, as 
such should subordinate every personal like or 
dislike in love to Him, the risen Lord and 
Saviour, and in all submission to the just Scrip¬ 
tural authority. “Let the elders that rule well 
be accounted worthy of double honor, especially 
they that labor in the Word and doctrines.” 
“Know them that have the rule over you, and 
esteem them very highly in love, for their works’ 
sake.” This is the Gospel rule in the Church 
of Christ. Love to and for all that are engaged 
in the work of the Lord. This love principle is 
the ever inventive passion of the heart; it is 
practical as well as ingenious, and is not bound 
to speculation of judgment or the feelings of the 


158 


THE CHURCH. 


heart. It lives in kindness, and flourishes in 
gentle consideration of others. It is not rude, 
nor discourteous; does not behave unseemly; not 
easily provoked; slow to take offence; “beareth 
all things.” 





CHAPTER VII. 

THE MINISTRY OF THE HOUY SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH. 

Acts ix : 31.— Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and 
Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the Jear of 
the Lord , and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost , were multiplied. 
John vii: 39 —But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed 
in Him were to receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet, because 
Jesus was not yet glorified. 

John xvi: 26. —The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father 
will send in my name, He shall teach you all things. 

II Thes. ii : 13. —God chose you to salvation in sanctification of the 
Spirit, and belief of the truth. 

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church 
is love, the love of the Spirit operating in and 
upon believers, enabling them to enter into co¬ 
operative union in fraternal love, for mutual 
advantage in the aggressive work of proclaiming 
the salvation of Christ to all men; and nothing 
but the love principle in the Church would, or 
possibly could, unite the vast varieties of men of 
all shades of intellectual attainment, and of 
every variety of faculty in their diversified con¬ 
ception of truth, whose many streams all con¬ 
verge and flow under the one blessed direction 
of the Spirit, into the great ocean of love, merge 
to immerge in God, the all in all, and, by com¬ 
mon consent, believers agree, irrespective of the 

159 




160 


THE CHURCH. 


many controverted questions of theological dif¬ 
ference, that it would be a sublime and magnifi¬ 
cent sight to witness all the great host of Chris¬ 
tendom, in one organism, and that organism sub¬ 
ject to the law of Christ, and the Lord Christ’s 
will obeyed in all the body, from the least to the 
greatest. “Ye are one” in organic unity, re¬ 
membering “where Christ is, there the Church 
is.” One in organic unity in the faith-life, by 
giving expression to the inward spiritual recep¬ 
tion of the truth, by outward and visible, con¬ 
tinuous love, one toward another. 

This is the ground upon which all the Church 
in her manifold diversities could unite. A unity 
of Church government is something else, based 
upon one universal ecclesiastical system, was 
never the intention of her divine Founder; nor 
is it, in the present circumstances of the great 
human race, desirable or possible, with such a 
vast array of differences of outward conditions 
of opinions, national peculiarities, of civil con¬ 
stitutions, of views in the matters of the home, 
the State, and the nations; and until the broad 
principle of love, which is the cement of the 
body of believers, takes place, the Church will 
continue to be under certain defined expression 


THE CHURCH. 


161 


of life, more or less colored by her environmeQt, 
and will continue to differ in opinions regarding 
the subordinate doctrine of the word. And 
any attempt to enforce a union of believers with¬ 
out their cheerful consent in loving recognition 
of doing unto the Lord Christ, would now, as in 
all the past, end in lamentable failure. 

Outward union, without the blessed in work¬ 
ing love, is of no use whatever. If it existed, it 
would exist in theory only, not in fact; such a 
union could present no inherent force, no 
strength, no success in the spread of the truth, 
no joyous looking forward to the blessed unity 
“of one mind,” because of its cold formalism in 
conformity to a standard of uniformity. But 
let all believers welcome the broad ground of the 
love principle of our divine Model, each striving 
to pattern the Lord, their Standard. They will 
not, nor cannot, reprobate their neighbor because 
teaching the essentials of divine truth, under 
different forms of expression. Truth will, and 
ever did, and ever will, point to Him, its Author, 
and upon the ground of truth take a common 
stand in love, forgetting all the difference about 
things non-essential, and in the generous, cour¬ 
teous spirit unite all the mighty host in the 


162 


THE CHURCH. 


Lord, by His Spirit, to bear witness to the sav¬ 
ing efficacy of His glorious Gospel, bearing tbe 
colors of the King aloft in facing the common 
foe, bearing down in heavy phalanx against sin 
in any and all form. This is the work of the 
Church, to battle for the Lord against sin and 
its multitudinous effects. 

The sphere of the Church work is wide and 
comprehensive, with all but limitless scope. She 
is in continual battle array against all the forces 
of evil. Her mission is a ceaseless warfare. 
She is in true militant combat. Her fight re¬ 
quires the undivided service of every soldier of 
the cross. Her foes are external and internal; 
they are legion. Her adversary is ever upon the 
alert. She must be ever watchful, presenting 
constant vigilance. Her life consists in living 
close to Him, her great official Head. Her doc¬ 
trines are not mere logical deductions, but on 
the contrary, life-giving, and to be obeyed, that 
every man may profit withal. Her truths are 
imperishable and momentous, embracing the 
science of morals, of Christology, revealing mul¬ 
titudinous facts of law as related to right and 
wrong, to sin and virtue, to freedom and obliga¬ 
tion, responsibility and punishment, of rewards 


THE CHURCH. 


163 


and joys; and for a believer to neglect the doc¬ 
trine of the word as it stands related to the 
body, and expect to develop in spiritual life, it 
would be as well to neglect the physical body 
by not partaking of food, and expect to enjoy 
health whilst refusing the means of sustenance. 

Believers must recognize the demands of the 
written word in order to have a right concep¬ 
tion of the revealed Word. “Every word of 
God is pure.” “But the word of our God shall 
stand forever.” The written word is now, and 
was when our divine Lord was upon earth, hon¬ 
ored by Him; its teachings are of vital import¬ 
ance to believers; its divine authenticity and 
authority relative to Christian faith and morals 
is the standard. It affirms what is, and what is 
not morality. It enables believers to get the 
true poise in their bearings. Its morality is the 
Christian morality; its ethics the highest, trans¬ 
fused by the Spirit. Believers understand all 
the implicates of the moral law as it stands re¬ 
lated to morality in its renovation through re¬ 
demption; morality in its perversion by sin, the 
effects of transgression upon the moral life in 
its original beauty and purity, as unfolded in the 
fall of man when surrounded by all the con- 


164 


THE CHURCH. 


genial environment of his Paradisical life in 
Edanic purity. 

The Holy Spirit opens up to the believer that 
all but limitless range for mental and spiritual 
consideration, whilst being in the Church mili¬ 
tant he discovers the love principle of his gra¬ 
cious Lord, bringing him back to all the former 
blessedness, when he held the delightful com¬ 
munion with his God, in the first Adam. The 
Church has ever been foremost in the recognition 
of this blessed truth, and believers are taught, 
in the written word, not by the mechanical 
processes of his outer life, but by the indwell¬ 
ing Spirit in love, revealing to his soul his 
true relation with the Father, and all believers 
his brethren in the Lord. This is the beginning, 
whose very commencement is not merely with 
the laws of right and virtue, in their application 
to human conduct alone, but controlling the 
spiritual development of the believer; and in all 
his relation with the body the one principle of 
all others, which determines his life, objectively 
and subjectively, to the Lord; not by the setting 
up of the doctrine of utility above right, or in 
other words, basing all rights, with their correl¬ 
ative obligation, upon utility, but setting up the 


THE CHURCH. 


165 


doctrine of the grace of God to all men who are 
called into the fellowship of the truth; not trac¬ 
ing out by a system of reasoning after the “rud¬ 
iments of men” the consciousness of the right 
and wrong, good and evil, virtue and vice; by 
the purely intellectual conception, ignoring the 
fundamental truths of the written word; teach¬ 
ing of a future judgment and immortality, which 
has a direct relation with every other important 
doctrine, such as the particular doctrine of moral 
pravity of human nature. The atonement made 
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the 
gracious interference of the Holy Spirit in a 
special manner, in renewing the mind and heart, 
and by the further progressive stages in con¬ 
ducting the believer through all the discipline 
for being made useful for the future state. 
These and all other truths of Revelation are to 
be held and taught in the Church, but held and 
taught in love, by allowing ample field and scope 
for the operation of the diversified gifts of the 
Spirit in its many-colored phases of the truth. 
All cannot see from the same angle; but all, 
praise be unto Gocl, can, by the Spirit, behold 
the Lord. There must be the free and courte¬ 
ous exercise of the love principle to admit of all 


166 


THE CHURCH. 


the different, complex and multitudinous schools 
of thought, with the necessary free and expan¬ 
sive methods of outward expression, because the 
field is immense, and every important truth 
should have full scope for its free exercise in 
the realms of thought and praxis. “Prove all 
things; hold fast that which is good.” The love 
principle will admit of broad grounds in deter¬ 
mining what shall be true; in the mode of ex¬ 
pressing every subject in which there is anything 
belonging to the essential truths of the word. 
Agreeable to its application, that which is made 
precisely correct, by its qualified condition, must 
therefore, separately from it, be correct. The 
Lord who gave, and the Spirit who applies, the 
revelations to declare the things of sacred truths, 
and to order the relations of moral sentiment 
with that truth, cannot give His sanction at once 
to the final constitution, and to that which 
refuses to be conformed to it. 

Therefore, disowning that which disowns the 
truth of Christ, and just so far as the truth of 
Christ disowns, believers should disown, and no 
more. What the Lord condemns, it is safe for 
the believer to refuse to entertain. Every ques¬ 
tion of morals, or faith, or praxis, should be 


THE CHURCH. 


167 


placed upon this one basis: “He that is not with 
Me, is against Me.” Any order other than the 
rule of the word is to be placed in like predica¬ 
ment. With regard to the Christian economy, 
there is no doubt that innumerable reasonings 
and conclusions may be advanced for and against 
the universal Church, based upon the love prin¬ 
ciple, but the foundation of the word is also 
based upon it, and to remove the one, is to dis¬ 
place the other. 

The theoretic representation of the Christianly 
normal life’s development, the exhibition of the 
upgrowth of the saved man, as redeemed by his 
Lord, is vast and all-comprehensive, presenting 
a marvelous truth, under any and all formula, 
teaching the objective operation of the grace of 
God upon man, as a redeemed subject of the 
King, in whose service he is now called to serve; 
in the blessed unity of the “one faith, one Lord, 
and one baptism;” “in one hope, in one calling;” 
even as ye are called. Here is the unity con¬ 
sidered in its anticipated, ultimate and actual 
accomplishment. The sublime doctrine con¬ 
cerning the supreme good of all men, to wit: 
their salvation and sanctification, not in the nar¬ 
row, utilitarian and eudsemonistic conception of 


168 


THE CHURCH. 


the supreme good of all men, but in the higher 
and nobler conception of unity in the all love- 
working power, to lead believers to “behold how 
good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to¬ 
gether in unity.” The true idea of Christian 
morality, whose teaching is the knowledge of 
the word in making known the Christian ethics, 
reposing upon completed redemption, wrought 
out by our Lord; the ideal standard, to which all 
men should, and are entreated to, attain. The 
word makes known the moral without reference 
to sin; the moral in its ideal form, that marvel¬ 
ous, primordial morality which God, the eternal 
and all-Father, as the Holy, wills and desires, 
in all His children. “Be ye perfect in all man¬ 
ner of life.” Living morally in its right rela¬ 
tion, by renovation through redemption; by ex¬ 
hibiting the truth of regeneration; by conform¬ 
ity to the will of God, and of His moral, saving 
grace; by living in communion with Him, and 
the overcoming of sinful corruption, to that at¬ 
tained life which the Lord has infinite, and man 
as contrite alike, wills and desires, and in the 
Pauline teaching, “He that glorieth, let him 
glory in the Lord.” “That I may know Him, 
and the power of His resurrection, and the fel- 


THE CHURCH. 


169 


lowship of His sufferings.” The distinctive 
work of the Holy Spirit in the Church is to 
make known the Lord to believers. 

This was the great problem, “to know Him and 
the power of His resurrection, to the fellowship 
of His sufferings.” This was the altitude to 
which the Apostle strived to attain unto, and 
toward which he ever pointed believers. Hot 
to be concerned of the relation between philo¬ 
sophical morals and the science of liberty, but to 
know Him and the power of His resurrection. 
Beliefs, doctrines, morals, ethics, all give way 
to this desire to “know Him,” the Prince of 
Peace, his Lord. And if the Apostle to the 
Gentiles strived to attain, may it not be, with 
equally true logic, applicable to all believers, in 
the truest and most comprehensive sense? To 
“know Him,” His mind and will; to obey Him, 
is the truest meaning. It is “doing the will, to 
know the doctrine.” This is not mere assump¬ 
tion by an unwarranted intrusion, but the 
gracious will of the Lord to the believer; to 
come, and in “coming, learn of Me.” This is 
soul-learning, to “know God and Jesus Christ, 
whom He hath sent.” And no man can keep in 
touch with the Master and not develop, spiritu- 


170 


THE CHURCH. 


ally; in Christ, and with Christ, is to know 
Christ; to become conformed to the stature of 
Christ, and thus Christly in loving consideration 
of all the called into the blessed fellowship of 
the “grace of the communion of saints.” 

This is the one inevitable result, likeness to 
his Lord, as “like begets like.” Hence, “they 
that are spiritual, mind spiritual things.” And 
what a clear and full survey of the grace of God 
toward believers does this love principle display 
in the redemption of our souls, by our Lord 
Christ; extending it to meet the last degree, in 
order to reach the deep, agonizing, spiritual 
needs of the believer; and thus led, the Holy 
Spirit makes clear to the Church the glorious 
purposes in grace. 

There must have been a good and sufficient 
reason; a reason, too, fully satisfactory to our 
divine Lord, for this most stupendous and ex¬ 
traordinary exhibition. It was love, and could 
not be a changing love; oh no, but an everlast¬ 
ing love toward the believer. It served to bring 
about such a state as is presented in the blessed 
Gospel of the Son of God. It is commensurate 
in dignity and importance, with its aim and pur¬ 
pose, namely, the redemption of our souls. Any 


THE CHURCH. 


171 


other hypothesis is utterly untenable. It was 
the love of God toward us in Christ Jesus, seen 
in the light of eternal love’s working. The en¬ 
tire plan of salvation; the marvelous phenomena 
of redemption of the world is by Christ, the 
Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world, 
is no longer perplexing, but in all its sublimity 
the humblest and plainest believer can easily 
comprehend this glorious, matchless, super¬ 
human and supernatural intervention of the 
Son of God, in the substitution of Himself. 
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin, that we might be made the righte¬ 
ousness of God in Him.” “For the love of 
Christ constraineth us.” “Because we thus 
judge, that if one died for all, then were all 
dead.” “And that He died for all, that they 
which live should not henceforth live unto them¬ 
selves, but unto Him which died for them, and 
rose again.” 

This was no ordinary love brought into the 
human arena of moral life, but it presents the 
great loving heart of our sovereign Lord toward 
us in most extraordinary condition, because it 
was while we were yet sinners, Christ died; died 
for us when we had no commendable qualities. 


172 


THE CHURCH. 


a For when we were jet without strength, in due 
time, Christ died for the ungodly. But God 
commendeth His love toward us, in that while 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And 
this same blessed, all-comprehensive spirit of 
love the Master has given to the Church to con¬ 
trol and govern, whilst being saved from sinful 
desire, delivered from sin, redeemed; and as the 
Spirit sanctifies in the sphere of His operation 
in the redemptive work, presenting to all be¬ 
lievers the blessings of the unity in the love of 
God toward the entire body, leading every mem¬ 
ber to come into due and reverential subordina¬ 
tion to the “mind of Him.” “Wherefore God 
hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a 
name which is above every name.” It is a unity 
in Him, whom God hath exalted, that believers 
are to strive to attain unto. All believers have 
the Christ pattern exhibited before them in the 
Gospel. It is not a question of difference of the 
Christ and His teachings that believers differ 
about so much, but the ceremonials and ex¬ 
ternals; not His gracious commandments, but 
man-conception of them; not the written word, 
but the erroneous interpretation of it; not in 
the obeying the truth of God, but by the cari- 


THE CHURCH. 


173 


caturing of the truth, by alienating the Spirit in 
His application of it. The word ever taught 
that God commanding, and man obeying. 

The Church is constituted of saved men, by 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and each and every man 
is a separate moral life, a moral, individual, per¬ 
sonal being, brought into living union in the 
Church by the Holy Spirit’s quickening, bound 
together into one spiritual, living whole, each 
member having a mission to perform; the entire 
totality consisting, in all its vast multitude, in 
the one fundamental love relation. Man is an 
individual, moral person, and the entire race con¬ 
stitutes a corporate person, a vital whole, with 
its individual, moral problem and moral voca¬ 
tion, exhibiting a vital, personal and moral unit, 
beholding as inferior to the eternal, all-wise God, 
the Superior; and each believer is related, by 
adoption, into the fellowship of grace, where¬ 
with they are “the called,” and as such continue 
to be moral subjects, being an individual in vital, 
rational, automatic, personal union with God, 
and consciously distinct from all other men. 
Believers are the subjects of the kingdom of 
Christ, and not merely in the sense of being a 
personality, existing and supporting the phe- 


174 


THE CHURCH. 


nomena of the moral life, but in a marked and 
special manner, in the sense of being a recreated 
and a renewed creation of God, in Christ; sense, 
subordinating all desires and affections to His 
rule and authority. Hence the word’s teach¬ 
ing, in its fullest and clearest sense of the terms, 
all recreated spiritual men are moral subjects of 
the Lord Christ, and as such have one common 
destination before them of the blessed future 
life’s existence in the company of the just spir¬ 
its. The highest phenomenal form of morality 
in coming “to the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born, which are written in heaven, 
and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirit 
of just men made perfect.” 

The renewed man can, by faith, behold the 
blessed, sinless state that his Lord has promised 
him, where, in all the blessed holiness of the 
redeemed life, he shall finally dwell; and thus 
encouraged, the believer recognizes the twofold 
nature, the individual, moral, spiritual being, 
and a corporeal being; and as such, lives in the 
joyous expectation of the blessed fruition, when 
both natures, the spiritual and material, are or¬ 
ganically united; and it is this blessed assurance 
of the believer, that he shall be in all and every 


THE CHURCH. 


175 


sense “like Him,” that stimulates and inspires 
him in his militant career. The spiritual na¬ 
ture is the basis and essence of the faith-life and 
existence. Hence the apostolic admonition: 
“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.” 

Again, the spiritual nature, which leads in 
the joyous, fraternal, Christian cooperation, in 
all the diversified work of the Church in blessed 
unity; and believers discover further, that all 
men, everywhere, are one; and thus led, they 
see a common, gracious, spiritual brotherhood in 
the Lord. It is not through the fleshly or bodily 
sense; but this one Spirit giving all believers 
the one common spiritual nature, to believe 
“the truth in love,” may grow up into Him in 
all things, which is the Head, even Christ, “from 
whom the whole body, fitly joined together and 
compact, by that which every joint supplieth, 
according to the effectual working in the meas¬ 
ure of every part, maketh increase of the body 
unto the edifying of itself in love.” This love 
principle of the word impresses the value of 
personal self-consciousness only to the extent and 
so far as it is agreeable to the revealed word, 
which is the ultimate standard. Through the 


176 


THE CHUECH. 


virtue of self-consciousness, man recognized him¬ 
self as a personal individual, that is, as a being 
distinct from others; not merely as one mere 
existence differs from another mere existence, 
but conscious of a personal individuality, pecu¬ 
liar and proper to himself alone, with like and 
dislike; an individuality, originally distinctive 
creation. And thus the believer can behold in 
every other believer the distinctive work of God, 
capable of possessing a vast and extensive knowl¬ 
edge of the truth, bringing the renewed man 
into blessed, harmonious relation (of “sons of 
glory”), into the body of the Lord, for whom 
Christ died, to present the renewed man, fault¬ 
less in spiritual likeness to the image of God; 
recognizing the fellowship in one divine life; 
uniting all believers in the kingdom of Christ, 
to rule in all and all, enabling the redeemed host 
to exclaim: “Thanks unto the Lather, which 
hath made us meet to be partakers of the in¬ 
heritance of the saints in light.” In the joyous 
delight and advantages which all true believers 
triumphantly praise God for; in their virtuous 
development in knowledge, in perfection, in 
freedom of volition, the gracious realization of 
holiness and purity of life. This is the grand 


* 


THE CHURCH. 177 

goal to which all believers are invited to press 
forward. The Holy Ghost power begets new 
increment of spiritual life, and thus developed, 
the believer is ever and daily progressing up¬ 
ward toward Him, the zenith of his aspiration, 
the one sublime ultimate aim, the final destina¬ 
tion of all believers in the same—the new Je¬ 
rusalem, the heavenly city, the Zion of our God. 
The word teaches that this final destination is 
no mere possibility, a mere contingency attached 
to condition, but it is the actual, blessed deter¬ 
mination of our Lord to give to all the favored, 
who have embraced the scheme of redemption, 
and are saved from their sins; and this possibility 
of freedom from sin is only, for the first time, 
annuled when the spiritual development has 
reached its final, blessed rest in Him, in absolute 
and perfect holiness, having attained the fulfil¬ 
ment of the blessed promise, “Because I live, 
ye shall live also.” It is then and there the be¬ 
liever will comprehend the deep spiritual signifi¬ 
cation of this sublime truth. We shall under¬ 
stand then all the gracious Lord’s vicarious aton¬ 
ing suffering for us; the full meaning and prac¬ 
tical blessedness of the Saviour’s love revealed 
by Him in founding the Church; Himself the 


178 


THE CHURCH. 


chief corner-stone, her life, the author and ob¬ 
ject of her salvation; His penal death for her, 
and His glorious resurrection, justification and 
intercession, atoning for a “multitude whom no 
man can number;” the “many members” of His 
mystical body, joined together by the inseparable 
“perfect bond of the Spirit,” bringing all into 
the fellowship of His grace; together with His 
Church. His spiritual body forensically arose, 
and thus raised, entered into the joyous majesty 
of the right hand of God, giving the power of 
His endless life for all that love Him, and by 
the Holy Spirit, whom He hath sent, permeat¬ 
ing His every emancipated follower, in giving 
the “liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free.” 
His freedom sets free. He, by the Spirit, it 
must be remembered, brings believers into rela¬ 
tion with God, restoring in the divine image and 
favor all the called; giving a new and higher 
morality and absolute truth, and absolute holi¬ 
ness; making the true consciousness to the be¬ 
liever, their obligation toward one another and 
toward God as moral rules, and sovereign of all 
men in this present evil world and in the world 
to come. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE BOND OF BELIEVERS IN THE LOVE 
OF CHRIST. 

John xiv: 16 17 — And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. 

Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him, for he 
dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 

The Church, in her blessed, perfect bond of 
the Spirit holding believers together in the love 
of Christ, contemplates all the renewed and 
saved in fraternal relation, one toward another, 
and by redemptive relation to God. The Gospel 
points with unerring accuracy to the Pole-star 
of the blessed hope, ever revealing the nature 
and character of Him who hath chosen us, cor¬ 
roborating and confirming that He resolved to 
save and sanctify a “people to Himself” by a 
way in perfect agreement with His eternal will 
and purpose, according to the riches of His grace 
toward us in Christ Jesus; and thus blessedly 
and gloriously saved, the renewed man is trans¬ 
formed by the life of grace. His moral life is 
Christianized. This is the fundamental and 
preliminary change. Renovation, transforma¬ 
tion, conversion having taken place, his entire 
179 


180 


THE CHURCH. 


being is variously affected by the recommence¬ 
ment within him of the faith-life; he is reached 
as an individual in his social capacity, and just 
in so far as he is so reached, he longs for the ex¬ 
tension of the love principle to all men in their 
individual and collective capacity, rejoicing. 
“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do 
good unto all men, especially unto them who are 
of the household of faith.” 

The renewed man beholds all the called of 
the common household of faith, and his great 
desire is, or ought to be, to do good. “Whereto 
we have already attained, let us walk by the 
same rule; let us mind the same things,” in love, 
in order that “brotherly love may continue.” 
In all the gracious injunctions, prohibitions, as 
also in all the sanctions thereto annexed. “God 
is love,” and just as love furnishes the basis for 
the forgiveness of sins, and in all the Gospel 
grace it is administered by love. It was this 
same gracious principle that revealed to the man 
in his sins his lost condition, and made known 
unto him the stern and judicial punishment 
which he justly merited as a sinner before God, 
the righteous, long-suffering, merciful Author 
of the plan of salvation. He is righteous, and 


THE CHURCH. 


181 


His righteousness will not, nor cannot, tolerate 
evil. “His soul hateth evil,” but His love and 
pity reached out toward the poor sinner, whilst 
yet in his sins, and in the great redemptive plan 
of the Gospel scheme love stood all the punitive 
vindication of the outraged law, enabling the 
poor offended sinner to come into the gracious 
restoration to divine favor, “taking out of the 
way” the objectionable thing, nailing it to the 
cross. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordi¬ 
nances that was against us,” “which was con¬ 
trary to us.” Removing all the obstructions and 
impediments by opening up a “new and living 
way” for the restoration of poor, sinful man, 
who had suffered and smarted under the bitter 
experience which sin had invoked, by bringing 
him back to the right relation with God, both 
in his moral and spiritual life, and immunity 
from the penalty and consequence of his trans¬ 
gression, by a full pardon; and thus pardoned, 
cleansed and brought into fellowship with all 
the joyous delight of adoption—blessedness of 
sonship. This is all of love, the sublime, eternal, 
immutable, unalterable love of God toward us 
in Christ Jesus. He reveals to the believer the 
nature and character of the “all-Father,” con- 


182 


THE CHURCH. 


firming and corroborating tbe blessedness of 
restoration; leading him to bebold God, tbe all- 
Sovereign, in tbe gracious exercises of His pre¬ 
rogatives toward bim; tbe now saved man re¬ 
joices in tbe truth of the revelation of God in 
Christ Jesus. The eternal Prototype of tbe 
Father’s love, the manifestation, the God-man, 
revealing in His sacred person and life all the 
gracious threefold function of Prophet, Priest 
and King. A Prince and Saviour brought nigh 
unto us. He makes known all the blessings of 
His grace, and has become for all time the ex¬ 
alted High Priest, ministering, once for all, the 
one spiritual oblation. 

The Holy Spirit discovers to the believer the 
idea of brotherhood in all the true conception 
and perfection, the one moral idea in actuality, 
the glorious incarnation; in Him,Christ Himself, 
God is made manifest; in Christ the man is also 
made manifest. The Holy God, as He eternally 
is, in His infinite, glorious and absolute perfec¬ 
tion, and man as he ought to be, and as he will 
be (praised be God) when he has attained to 
that height to which, by grace, he is striving to 
reach forth unto in all the gorgeous exaltation set 
before him in the Gospel scheme of redemption; 


THE CHURCH. 


183 


and then, as he glorifies God in his mortal body, 
giving praise unto the blessed Saviour, who is 
ever set before him in his progressive uptrend 
to God; and the believer now, with all the cor¬ 
porate body, can rejoice in the hope of that day, 
when he shall see the Lord, Jesus Christ. The 
exalted-man idea is no more a mere vague 
thought of the speculative imagination, but he 
exists in all the real, sublime, personal actuality. 
He is not only the historic Christ, hut is also the 
ever living, personal Christ, precious to the be¬ 
liever, who loves with the love of the “elder 
brother.” 

In all the manifold phases of this life and 
death, resurrection and ascension, His glorious 
mediation at the right hand of the throne of God, 
presenting ever the one propitiatory offering, 
once for all, our divine Lord Christ is the most 
sublime, enrapturing revelation, the purest and 
loftiest, the fairest among the fair, the One alto¬ 
gether lovely, the Chief among them all; in His 
amazing love and mercy upon the one hand, and 
upon the other, in His all, and in every sense 
of the meaning, mental, moral and spiritual, the 
perfection of ideality, showing at a glance all 
the physical and spiritual possibilities. The 


184 


THE CHURCH. 


God-man, in whom the blessed unity is consum¬ 
mated; in Him the renewed man sees all the 
fullest fruition, glowing with life and warmth, 
vigor and joy, freshness and beauty. He, in a 
word, is the embodiment of love, revealing at 
once to the believer his duty toward his fellow be¬ 
liever, now, in the present life, and in the life to 
come. a Let every one of us please his neighbor, 
for his good to edification; for even Christ pleased 
not Himself, but, as it is written, the reproaches 
of them that reproach thee fell on Me.” “Walk 
in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice 
to God for a sweet smelling savor.” The Church 
of Christ is founded upon this blessed principle, 
and believers are exhorted to this high standard, 
by the Spirit, who graciously reveals God’s will 
to the Church. God reveals Himself, by the 
Holy Ghost, to the believer; hence the renewed 
man is enabled to know Christ, and through the 
knowledge of Christ, to know the mind and will 
of the Father. Thus favored, he rejoices in the 
Spirit’s revelation of God’s will concerning his 
every act and relation; whilst in the Church 
militant the Holy Spirit leads him, inspiring his 
heart to devotion, to prayer and praise in private 



THE CHURCH. 


185 


and public service; revealing God’s will within 
us each day and every day; fulfilling His prom¬ 
ise, “As thy days, so thy strength shall be.” It 
is the Holy Spirit in the believer, prompting to 
the desire for good, sanctifying the affections, 
filling us by the continual infilling of grace in 
love, joy, and all the peaceable fruits of righte¬ 
ousness, and adding to our faith, patience, godli¬ 
ness, “brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kind¬ 
ness, charity.” The Holy Spirit makes our 
bodies the temples of God. Hot the little 
tabernacle made with hands, the no more out¬ 
ward and visible and external man-m^e and 
man-patterned tabernacle, but the body; the 
Spirit cleansing by the inspiration of the Word 
indwelling, makes anew the heart, the temple of 
God; restores right relation; brings about the 
much longed-for communion between man and 
his sovereign God, his Maker; uniting in blessed 
unity the righteously offended, gracious God, 
and the offending man; the poor sinner, who had 
become so imbruted by the course of sinful pro¬ 
cedure, but now reconciled. But thanks be 
unto Him, “who hath reconciled us to Himself 
by Jesus Christ.” “Therefore, if any man be 
in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are 


186 


THE CHURCH. 


passed away; behold, all things are become 
new.” New in all the relationship of the all- 
Father’s love to the believer, in the sonship 
through grace; brought nigh, and praised be 
God, kept nigh in and amid all the varied per¬ 
ambulations. Whilst in the Church militant 
favored still further to enjoy all the blessings 
accompanying the redemptive life as contem¬ 
plated by the Holy Spirit’s renewal; his ‘Con¬ 
science void of offence toward God and toward 
man,” he is “at peace with God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ;” having the literal evidence 
that G^d reveals His mind and will toward him 
through this faculty of his being, and through 
“conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy 
Ghost.” It silences all the terrors and qualms, 
which the blurred and darkened conscience that 
sin wrought in the poor sinner, and the awak¬ 
ened sinner feels only too plainly, and knows by 
long and painful experience, what it is to have 
conscience, the inward monitor, accusing “their 
conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts 
the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one 
another.” The believer enjoys and knows what 
it is to have this faculty once more upon his side, 
approving and commending him in the renewed 


THE CHURCH. 


187 


relation with his God. “Having a good con¬ 
science that, whereas they speak evil of you, as 
of evil doers, they may be ashamed that falsely 
accuse your good conversation in Christ.” 

What a change is wrought in this inner wit¬ 
ness, conscience always giving voice to spiritual 
things. It ever points to the higher altitude. 
It was, in the unrenewed man, interior evidence, 
a terror amounting to ineradicable conviction 
and condemnation; but now it is on the side of 
the renewed man, led by the Spirit into the 
blessed, eternal, saving truths of the Gospel of 
the precious Son of God. The believer, in all 
his relation by grace, is in and upon all sides of 
his being, corporeal and physical, spiritual and 
eternal, redeemed by the love principle so gra¬ 
ciously extended toward the believer. And 
what scope and extensive realms of thought are 
here opened up to the mind’s eye and mental 
grasp of the spiritually discerning in the Church 
of Christ. The Christian, should he desire, 
might enter into this nobler, higher sublime life, 
having and enjoying all the perfection of the 
redeemed love. Should he wish for more, he 
can secure by grace. “Of Him are ye in Christ 
Jesus, who of God is made unto wisdom and 


188 


THE CHURCH. 


righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp¬ 
tion.” All the aspirations of the soul can he 
satisfied in Him; the highest and loftiest flights 
of the spiritual joys are realized. He is the a all 
and in all,” enabling the believer to discern, 
through grace, the cardinal -ethics of the word, 
behold morality in its grandest conception and 
perfection displayed in Him, the most sublime 
revelation; and thus in perfect agreement with 
all the renewed natures of kindred spirits, he 
discovers in this revelation the perfection of 
morality as it has been refined, influenced, spir¬ 
itualized, and he triumphing by overcoming the 
world; and the flesh sees the grace of moral 
renovation, sublimatized and Christianized, 
through redemption, praising God, who hath 
given the Spirit to enable him to methodize and 
codify the written word of the Old and Hew, 
bringing all the treasure of untold wealth to the 
believer, to supply all his needs whilst in his 
militant career, and further, by giving him a 
thorough and worthy Christology. 

Again, the Holy Spirit, in its teaching of 
the love principle, makes known the religion of 
Christ in its most distinguishing feature, dis¬ 
playing not so much man deified, but God 


THE CHURCH. 


189 


humanfied. Jesus Christ came into this world; 
He declared He is not of it, but came into it. 
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all ac¬ 
ceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world 
to save sinners,” and it is, and ought to be, the 
joyful news to every man, and believers are to 
affirm to the Word’s statement; not because the 
doctrine is either justified by reason, or demon¬ 
strated by science, but because the Word of God 
declares it, and it is thus purely a question of 
faith; not of science or reason; not the modern 
jungling of interpretation, but believing with 
the heart, not the intellect. It is light-life in 
the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
made me free from the law of sin and death.” 
Proclaiming the nobleness of goodness and 
righteousness and faith. Believers are “justified 
by faith,” not by science, or the schools of in¬ 
tellectual conception of right and wrong, with 
all the varied and many-shaded interpretations 
advanced by philosophy. “Faith is the victory,” 
and that not of ourselves, but the gift of God. 
The blood of Christ is the new covenant, not 
the old law of circumcision. It is the blood 
which speaketh better things, making a better 
agreement, and more enduring, called “the ever- 


190 


THE CHUECH. 


lasting covenant.” The blood of Christ pro¬ 
claims the beginning of life; it is the only means 
of approach unto God; the one way of com¬ 
munication to eternal and divine life to all that 
love Him and believe upon His name. 

The Church is a body of believers, and “faith, 
which worketh by love,” is the bond uniting 
them in blessed, fraternal relation, transfusing 
the Christ-life into the believer. The blood of 
Christ is the life; the blood shed for all is the 
life given up; and praise be unto Him, who pro¬ 
vided the Lamb, the sacrifice made possible for 
all to escape from the destroying angel, which 
smote the Egyptian first-born. It is the sheltered 
by the blood applied and received in the life in¬ 
corporated, and believers are the incorporated in 
Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sublime, all- 
sufficient One, proclaiming deliverance to the 
captive, the glad evangel of all conquering life, 
“who hath delivered us from the power of dark¬ 
ness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of 
His dear Son.” It is the kingdom of the “dear 
Son” that believer^ are called into. He gives all 
the virtues of the redemptive economy in a 
marked and special manner. The believer, 
through grace, can appropriate all its blessings. 


THE CHURCH. 


191 


Every Christian virtue is within his reach, and 
therefore should be attained, because he is ad¬ 
monished to “add to his faith” all the Christian 
virtues, and every Christian virtue is of special 
value, considered as a vital and moral force, 
molding the character and life whilst in his mili¬ 
tant career, the blessing to the soul in its actual¬ 
ization of his sonship to God accrues in all the 
forms as manifold and as multitudinous as the 
possible experience of the faith-life. 

The necessity of the graces in the uptrend of 
development is essential to the fuller spiritual 
conception and enjoyment of Him, enabling the 
believer to bear, first upon the earth, in righte¬ 
ous and godly living, and in heaven happiness 
and blessedness, in holy communion with the 
fellow believers and with Christ, the Head. This 
principle of love uniting upon earth all the 
varied phases of the faith-life, in its diversity of 
relationship, are sanctified by it, being now but 
a foretaste of the life to come, when the militant 
Church shall give way to the Church triumph¬ 
ant, revealing itself in all its magnificent propor¬ 
tion and holy fruition; knit together in one 
blessed, inseparable union, endeared by the lov¬ 
ing tie to rejoice forever in resplendent entirety 


/ 


192 


THE CHURCH. 


of the oneness of the Church, whose heavenly 
polity can be nothing less than love, in which 
Christ, the divine Head, is King, forever and 
forever. Then, and only then, will the Church 
be what believers long for her: One, “one in all 
in Him.” 

The renewed man, renovated morally and 
spiritually, in every sense, will rejoice in the 
life which began in humble and lowly penitence, 
at the foot of the cross, having attained the 
matchless consummation of ideality and actual¬ 
ization in the believer’s life. “When mortality 
shall be swallowed up of life;” the truth toward 
which all believers shall have risen up to the 
mark of the perfect man in Christ Jesus. 
Every believer a perfect member of a perfect, 
grand, completed whole; without, and for¬ 
ever relieved of, diversity by a completed 
unity in Him, mentally, morally, physically and 
rationally complete; when the mighty host of 
the Lord, the redeemed concourse of every tribe 
and kindred, shall in one sublime, harmonious 
polity, live ever praising God in the new song, 
bursting out in mighty triumphant “Worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, 


THE CHURCH. 


193 


and glory, and blessing forever and ever!” Be¬ 
lievers then will know and realize, in its fullest 
fruition, what the Church of the Lamb’s redeem¬ 
ing means, when the redeemed of the Lord shall 
come, crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Al¬ 
mighty!” Only then can the redeemed man 
know the grandeur and splendor of the Church, 
or even proximately to realize the ultimate issue 
in its vast, all-comprehensive scheme of redemp¬ 
tion, the gloriously wrought out redemption of 
the believer, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

Meanwhile let us strive, whilst in the Church 
under the tuition of the Holy Spirit, leading 
into truth, exercising the grace of Christian for¬ 
bearance in love with all the ardor of the re¬ 
newed life, by a unification of the blessed, joy¬ 
ous experience of the “Word of Christ dwell in 
you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admon¬ 
ishing one another in psalms and hymns, and 
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts 
to the Lord.” The praise spirit encouraged by 
grateful thanksgiving unto God, in love, which 
is so productive of the highest worship, and cal¬ 
culated to inspire in the loftiest degree the sin- 
cerest and profoundest reverential veneration for 
“Him whose we are, and whom we serve.” Hot 


194 


THE CHIJECH. 


in the stiff denominational strife, nor in the cold, 
unscientific, dogmatic form, in which the pre¬ 
cious life-giving truths of the Gospel have been 
presented by a cold, scholastic theology, but 
away with man-made systems, and catechisms, 
and formulae, and give the blessed Gospel of the 
kingdom, in all its freshness and vigor, presented 
in the simplicity and tender words of “Him who 
spake as never man spake,” giving to the Church 
the beautiful and most enrapturing truths in 
love, free from the repulsive, pedantic boast of 
legalism, which has in the past, and is now, in 
the present, doing such serious injury to the 
unity of believers by its bitter denominational- 
ism and ecclesiasticism. 

Believers need the whole truth as it is revealed 
in the face of Jesus Christ, in love, in light, in 
warmth, in life, not in the cold, abstract, nause¬ 
ating nostrum and its accompanying conven¬ 
tionalism, with this or that creed or confession, 
but the precious, life-giving, blessed Gospel of 
the Son of God, in all purity, leading believers 
into the broader and nobler Christian sympa¬ 
thies. “If there come any unto you, and bring 
not this doctrine, receive him not into your 
house; neither bid him God speed.” “And if 


THE CHURCH. 


195 


any man obey not onr word by this epistle, note 
that man, and have no company with him, that 
he may be ashamed.” 

The Church of Christ is to be controlled by 
the Holy Spirit in love in all her polity; and the 
great end sought by our Lord, in His gracious 
rule on earth, is the salvation of the believer 
through redemption; and whatever outward 
form of expression the Gospel of glad tidings 
may assume, it must be agreeable to the mind of 
the Spirit, and the aid of the Spirit, in all His 
blessed guidance in the Church to effect the 
salvation of souls, in bringing actual redemption 
to all men, and it is the work of believers, whilst 
laboring in the militant Church, to make known 
their common salvation to every creature. This 
is ever to be accompanied by love. It was our 
divine Lord’s appointed plan, as witnessed in all 
His ministry, and such is His general plan in 
laboring for the salvation of men. The dispen- 
sational end designed by our Saviour, and that 
end is as possible as it is desirable. It is, or 
ought to be, the ultimate end of all Christian 
effort. It is the subject of our exalted Saviour’s 
intercession, “Ask of Me, and I will give thee 
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ut- 


196 


THE CHURCH. 


termost parts of the earth for thy possession;” 
and it is agreeable to the clear, emphatic promise 
of God, that all men, everywhere, shall know 
Him, from the greatest to the least, a that unto 
Christ every knee shall bow, and every tongue 
shall confess Him;” to the glory of God, the 
knowledge of the common salvation of the 
Christ is to he witnessed through the whole 
world, by and in this one principle of love. “The 
knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as 
the waters cover the sea;” and in this view the 
believer is to labor in the Lord’s vineyard, sow¬ 
ing and planting, nursing and reaping, until the 
Lord of the harvest shall come. Testifying of 
Me in Jerusalem and in Judea, in Samaria and 
to the uttermost parts of the earth, “till we all 
come in the unity of the faith,” because the 
light is come, that all men might see. He is 
“a Light to lighten the nations” of the earth. 
Everywhere and anywhere the word is to be 
preached, that “all nations shall call Him 
blessed.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE BELIEVER THE MEANS EMPLOYED TO MAKE KNOWN 
THE GLAD TIDINGS OE SALVATION UNDER THE 
TUITION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

II Corinthians vi : i.— IVe then, as workers together with him, beseech 
you also, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 

I Corinthians xxxi: 9. —For we are laborers together with God, year 
God's husbandry,ye are God's building. 

Acts xv : 4. —A nd when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received 
of the Church, and of the Apostles and Elders, and they declared 
all things that God had done with them. 

I Timothy iv : 6. —If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these 
things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. 

The believer is the means, under God, the in¬ 
strument employed to carry and witness to the 
saving grace of the Gospel in the world. It is 
by human instrumentality, under divine guid¬ 
ance, the knowledge is to be made known unto 
every creature. This is the means employed— 
saved men and women—and agreeable to our 
divine Lord’s command, redeemed men and wo¬ 
men are to accomplish our blessed Saviour’s pur¬ 
pose in earth. He is Himself the great Worker 
in this as in the preliminary achievements. He 
is the gracious Redeemer and Saviour. He 
brought salvation. “His own arm brings Him 
salvation.” He ever liveth, and He is ever pres¬ 
ent in the body of believers, by His Spirit, and 

197 



198 


THE CHURCH. 


is represented in His Church by the Holy Spirit. 
Hence the beautiful unity of the blessed rela¬ 
tion of the redeemed in the redemptive work of 
making known the gracious news of salvation, 
“in the Holy Spirit’s love now poured out on 
all flesh/’ to enable all men to come to the sav¬ 
ing and gracious effects of the Gospel; and by 
the Spirit of Christ, which “proceeds from the 
Father, and the Son,” is the gift of the Son, as 
He has the promise of the Father, and graciously 
given to all “the called,” regardless of kindred 
or tribe. 

Believers are the visible and local living 
shrine in whom Christ dwells, “dwelling in them 
richly.” The saved instruments of grace, by 
and through whom He operates on the world. 
He uses poor, frail, human beings, who are sub¬ 
jects of “His great salvation,” to carry forward 
and onward the work. “I go away,” but ye are 
in, but not of the world, and praised be His 
name, “gone to the Father,” but present by the 
Holy Spirit, the Comforter, who is present. The 
sublime fulfilment of His promise, “I will come 
to you.” He is ever present with the believer; 
not in the visible sense, “not here,” but gone to 
the Father. Gone away, because He said “it 


THE CHTJKCH. 


199 


was expedient” He should go away, “to prepare 
a place.” The risen, exalted Lord is gone to the 
Father, and the blessed Spirit is come to dwell. 
“Another Comforter,” guiding into all truth. 
The gracious Lord is ever present, now spiritu¬ 
ally and invisibly, in a delocalized sense, by His 
Spirit, in the Church, the indwelling in the 
body of believers; and He is spiritually dis¬ 
cerned, and all therefore so spiritual, in the 
fullest meaning of the term. Spiritual in every 
sense of the word; not carnal, material and 
visible, but spiritual; and further, the risen 
Christ dwelling in the body, in which temple 
the Lord is manifested in a fuller incarnation in 
redeemed humanity; the greater temple of His 
Church; the visible witness of His invisible pres¬ 
ence. “God manifested in the flesh,” and in 
every believer is this manifestation of spiritual 
indwelling of the Christ. “ISTow, if any man 
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” 
The Christ Spirit is in this body, His visible 
Church, encouraged, animated and enthused by 
Himself. Her life, she is a union, unitedly at¬ 
tached to Him in love, used and honored of Him 
in the making known His purpose by the Spirit’s 
leading. . The visible instrumentality to ac- 


200 


THE CHURCH. 


complish His beneficient purpose of redemption 
in the world, and as such, the body of believers 
is the divinely founded, human instrument in 
carrying the Gospel to the world lying in sin. 
Our Lord was graciously pleased to send men 
to save men, by the “preaching of the Word of 
Life;” and every saved man, according to his 
several abilities, is to strive to evangelize man¬ 
kind. The means employed is saved men and 
women; and we emphasize this, because it is by 
the preaching of the word the Church dis¬ 
charges successfully her mission to “go and make 
disciples of all nations;” and it is by such means 
the testimony of the Church is powerful in hold¬ 
ing the “light in dark places,” preaching the 
Gospel in its most forceful and pregnant sense. 
Meanwhile edifying in love the brethren, by 
uniform Christian courtesy and forbearance, in 
gentle meekness, and sincere godliness, in all the 
varied relations of the Church, of attracting the 
unsaved to embrace “the truth as it is in Jesus,” 
by enabling them to come as convinced and con¬ 
victed of sin whilst in the world, so material, 
secular and visible; winning men as trophies of 
His redeeming grace, to the praise and glory of 
His name. 



THE CHURCH. 


201 


This is a call for unity in the Church, to make 
known “the truth,” which is “mighty to save” 
to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, 
for He is able to save our souls by the Word of 
Truth; and all believers are the begotten of 
God in regeneration, not in sacramental grace, 
but by the “will begot He us,” and it is the 
“truth that makes us free;” not baptism; not 
sacramental absolution, “but the truth.” Our 
Lord was graciously pleased, during His min¬ 
istry in earth, to admonish His hearers to “take ' 
heed what you hear,” for it is the Word that 
can “save you.” He never stated that it was 
the ordinance, or the man-made churchly ob¬ 
servance, but the Word; and He doubly ex¬ 
horted man to be mindful of this responsibility, 
and to “take heed how ye hear.” It will de¬ 
pend largely upon the attention to what and how 
we hear, that our life and walk will be ordered; 
upon the hearing will depend subjection to its 
power. The believer’s testimony is of great 
moment in the Church. He is invited to hear 
what the “Spirit saith,” and to do what the 
Word teaches. This is the Church testimony 
for Christ, to strive to exemplify in the life; 
the saved or renewed man is a moral force in 


202 


THE CHURCH. 


the community, and to exhibit by his life the 
effective evidence of spiritual renovation by a 
power within working outward, that shall be 
mightier than the former evil, which controlled 
him when living in subjection to it. The saved 
man has God enshrined in his heart, giving 
force and character, enabling him to become 
more and more like Christ Himself, in purity 
of purpose and singleness of heart, rejoicing in 
the happy possession of the “power of God unto 
salvation.” This all believers can attain unto; 
the rich grace supplied by the Holy Spirit, who 
graciously fills with life the seed of the king¬ 
dom, prepares the heart to receive it, gives the 
disposition to accept the offered mercy, supplies 
the motive to embrace the faith wrought by the 
Holy Ghost, which worketh by love, calling into 
exercise the power of the heart and mind, ob¬ 
jectively and subjectively, which secures in 
every Christian the acceptance of Christ by a 
personal, loving surrender to his Lord, as his 
Saviour, in entire subjection to the obligation of 
the sovereign will of Him who hath called him 
into the kingdom; and this done, the Master of 
the vineyard, the great "Worker, achieves His 
purpose in all its beneficient effect in the great 


THE CHURCH. 


203 


plan of salvation, by using instrument and 
means, the cherished ones, who are called into 
the sphere of their operation by love, to labor 
in bringing all men to the knowledge of the 
Gospel of the blessed hope of the Son of God. 

This is the distinctive province of every body 
of believers, and should be sought in all their 
organic life. The end to be sought by “the 
Church,” so plainly defined by her Lord, the one 
great dispensational work to which she is as¬ 
signed. Every intelligent believer longs for 
more efficient unity among the many phases of 
visible Church life, in order to accomplish the 
great purpose of the Lord, her Founder. The 
Scripture is of sufficient warrant, teaching the 
ground of unity in Him, notwithstanding the 
most searching hostile criticism has been leveled 
against its divine authenticity and genuineness, 
its whole or part, especially as the modern, ra¬ 
tionalistic critic comes to the front, without dis¬ 
guise, advancing his materialistic and skeptical 
sophistries, so hostile to divine revelation and to 
the sovereign God. They advance, throughout 
all their inquiries, the unsoundness of the man- 
evolved theories. Rationalism is above all other 
isms in its attack upon divine revelation; it is 


204 


THE CHURCH. 


utterly godless and antichrist, necessarily athe¬ 
istic, and therefore can have no true morality, no 
true conception of divine revelation. The ration¬ 
alistic principles reach the conclusion that the 
all-holy God is only a creature of imagination, 
and in their further development they explain 
that light, gravity, electricity, heat, thought, 
will, are mutually convertible forces; that the 
mind is but a continuation of thought, and that 
the Biblical testimony of God is only supersti¬ 
tious ideas, and the Mosaic narration of the crea¬ 
tion of all “things by Him,” the soul, heaven 
and hell, sin and repentance, the resurrection 
and the judgment, they claim, all vanish upon 
their critical investigation, and like Joachim, 
they use the penknife to cut the roll of the mes¬ 
sage of the word, until it is of small importance 
in their estimation, and in company with the 
intuitionalist, and the utilitarian, whose philos¬ 
ophy is as misleading and erroneous as the posi¬ 
tivist, and the physicist, who would limit the 
Almighty, the Lord of Hosts, to their narrow 
and darkened comprehension, by ignoring the 
sublime truth of revelation and the setting aside 
of the moral Governor of our race. Hence all 
the schools of intuitionalism and utilitarianism 



THE CHURCH. 


205 


invariably land their votaries into the cold, 
blighting atmosphere of atheism, with the at¬ 
tendant results. 

The more modern school, called by common 
consent, “The Spirit of the Age,” which is mak¬ 
ing such marked and strenuous efforts to check¬ 
mate the spread of the Gospel, is rationalistic 
and materialistic. They claim the ultimate de¬ 
cision in the court of final appeal in every case 
is the judgment of human reason; not the “judg¬ 
ment of revelation.” They make no provision 
for human depravity; no recognition for the 
possibility and insecurity of the limitation of 
human reason, the test and standard of the mind 
faculty; the conscience blurred; the entire moral 
nature swung out of poise by sin imbruted; the 
intellect w r arped by a conflicting, destructive 
system of portentious infidelity and spurious 
theologies; putting up man, the fallible, for a 
judge; bringing all the weighty truths of revela¬ 
tion to the bar of his own reason, rather than 
submitting to the infallible Judge, whose judg¬ 
ment is the court of last resort. The modem 
school of “The Spirit of the Age” has, unfor¬ 
tunately, exaggerated the man-evolved system, 
until to-day they not only question the divine 


206 


'J’HE CHURCH. 


authenticity of the Biblical testimony, but the 
Deity Himself; His attributes, His government, 
His existence, His amazing love and mercy, His 
redemptive work, His vicarious suffering, His 
glorious, substitutionary death, resurrection, as¬ 
cension and mediation, subjecting all to the ra¬ 
tionalistic treatment. All the sublime truths of 
the written word, under the false guise of seek¬ 
ing the truth by the exercise of the faculty 
called reason; by the most unreasonable course 
of procedure, putting reason, and by assuming 
it to be the judge of God, when the highest 
possible uses reason ever led man was to bring 
him prostrate before His throne in entire sub¬ 
jection of reason and conscience to the rule of 
the Eternal. All the advanced methods of 
skeptical criticism is the direct opposite of the 
truly learned and scientific; critics, in all their 
criticisms, are conjectural and subjective; their 
inductions are not the result of patient consid¬ 
eration of the facts. In order to arrive at just 
conclusions, the flagrant boast of the critic is, 
they treat the Bible upon its merits, like any 
other book, save they fail to accord the testi¬ 
mony of the Scripture narration the same un¬ 
biased judgment accorded “any other book.” 


THE CHURCH. 


207 


The critic enters upon what he terms his in¬ 
vestigation by the crude and broad assumption 
that the Bible is neither authentic nor genuine; 
and with his mind thus colored, he is ready to 
prejudge what he now considers to be the un- 
reconcilable, contradictory statements of the 
Mosaic narration. He flatters himself upon the 
proofs of geology, the unwritten testimony of 
the past, and points to the strata formation; but 
had he read still deeper in the rock crevice, and 
the rill-life of motion, he would have exclaimed, 
with the Psalmist of old, “Happy is he that hath 
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in 
the Lord, his God, which made heaven and 
earth, the sea and all that therein is, which 
keepeth truth forever.” “Let them praise the 
name of the Lord, for His name alone is excel¬ 
lent; His glory is above the earth and heaven.” 
“One generation shall praise Thy works to am 
other, and shall declare Thy mighty acts.” “My 
soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and I love them 
exceedingly.” “Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be 
upon us, according as we hope in Thee.” 

The critical scrutiny of the written word, whose 
sole object is not to increase our stock of knowl¬ 
edge and reverence for God, but to diminish the 


208 


THE CHURCH. 


small amount we possess, the modem school of 
higher critics has wrought equally harmful by at¬ 
tempting to unsettle the well received Mosaic 
statement, commonly called the Pentateuch. “It 
were ever easier to pull down than to build up.” 
The unrest produced in so marked a degree by 
higher criticism has had a serious effect on edu¬ 
cational centers. Equally unscientific and dis¬ 
believing is this modern spirit in directing the 
attack upon the written word. It is in direct 
opposition to all the supernatural revelation. It 
seems to aim at the rule and the existence of the 
Lord Christ, working directly opposite to the 
truth. It menaces all the well received and long 
tested, comforting truths to the believer. Is 
this not an especial appeal for Christians to rec¬ 
ognize the necessity of the unity in love? To 
stand loyally and mightily upon the Word, and 
meet with united Christian forbearance and 
charity the onslaught of this deplorable, mis¬ 
guided intellectual condition of affairs; to hold 
the truth in love against all the prevailing men¬ 
tal, moral and intellectual insubordination to 
God? The flagrant revolt against the rule of 
God, in the conscience of men, is a serious mat¬ 
ter, calling forth the patient forbearance of the 


THE CHURCH. 


209 


Church, and it requires the continued united 
force to combat this intellectual serfdom of the 
semi-scholastic world. 

Believers can witness to the complete subjec¬ 
tion to the will of God in all the realms of 
science and theology, by giving out to men 
everywhere the life-giving streams of the joyous, 
experimental knowledge of the overflowing grace 
of God. Surely, every thoughtful Christian, of 
each and every organization that meets in “His 
name” to the worship and praise of the Lord, 
longs for the happy realization of the universal 
brotherhood, in fraternal associational unity 
held by the “bond of perfectness.” In the stand 
for the rule of the Lord in all things mental, 
moral and intellectual, no believer can stand and 
look on with indifference, or reflect upon the 
condition of the semi-scholastic world without 
feeling the most poignant regret that men will 
continue to grope along with outstretched fingers 
of the senses, reaching out for the felt want of 
the inner self, conscious that it longs for restora¬ 
tion. Men ever and everywhere have the thirst- 
ings and cravings for deliverance from the pris- 
onhouse of flesh; the soul, in its search after 
light, in restlessness beats against the bars of 


210 


THE CHURCH. 


the corporeal body; like the caged bird, it longs 
to soar up and beyond into the higher altitudes. 
He is a dull scholar who fails to catch the lisp- 
ings of the souls of men, in their struggle to at¬ 
tain that idealism of a higher development. 

The ancients, long ere Zeno, the Stoic, beheld 
floating before his mental vision the universal 
brotherhood, of which he taught, or Zoroaster, 
Gathas, or the oracles of Buddha, have ever in 
the way-back, early foot-print of time, longed 
for the Eldorado of the soul. The Logos bursted 
through the clouds of mental obscurity like a 
sheen, sending its enlightening blessedness into 
the darkened and benumbed souls of men, who 
have been groping about in the hopeless pas¬ 
sageways of unbelief. Chilling and blighting 
fantasies presented themselves to the mind’s eye 
of their intellectual discernment. The unrest 
in man’s bosom ever pointed somehow, in some 
way, however crude and vague, to the up and 
beyond; the outstretching yearnings of man 
were ever thus. It crops out in all the ancient 
reasonings. Bead the classics; the poor, unre¬ 
newed man ever had an “aching void;” the 
struggle was against himself. In his man-made 
sphere man is, and ever will be, at unrest and in 


THE CHURCH. 


211 


opposition to revelation; but let him come into 
relation with God, the enigma is solved; the 
mystery of his being, mental, moral and intel¬ 
lectual, is explained. Seen in the light of the 
renewed life and light, the entire phenomena is 
no longer perplexing. He discovers new and 
extraordinary and exceptional conditions, crying 
out: “Whereas I was blind, I now see!” This 
glorious knowledge of the saving efficacy of the 
Saviour’s love toward him in the Gospel, which 
appeared to his mental conception all contradic¬ 
tion, is most blessedly and harmoniously recon¬ 
ciled, and in reverential submission, glorifies 
God, his Maker, in his mortal body. Man has 
ever believed and taught that he is more than 
what he appears to be, by his externals. He has 
ever been conscious of an eternal self; in a 
word, spirit as well as body, and as spirit he is 
capable of knowledge; and thus led, he under¬ 
stands all the aims of true knowledge are truth, 
and the exercise of this faculty brings him to 
the position of a realizing sense of his needs, 
which are not deceptive. He knows, in the 
anguish of his soul, the longing after God. This 
aspiration once in harmony with his better self, 
he discovers that all the antagonistical reason- 


212 


THE CHURCH. 


ings of the pantheistic ontology, and the ever 
multiplying schools of know-nothing philosophy 
are rationalistic and opposed to God. 

Man has ever been capable of knowing God; 
not abstractly, or theoretically; not only nega¬ 
tively, but positively; to know God and Jesus 
Christ, whom He hath sent, is the province of 
the believer; but to know because God is the 
God of generation, as well as the God of regen¬ 
eration, however paradoxical it may appear. 
“God is the God of all men.” “All souls are 
Mine.” Whether in the redemptive sense, or 
in the creative sense, all men everywhere, 
whether men accept or reject the Biblical con¬ 
ception of the all-supremacy of the Lord Al¬ 
mighty; the fact is, the “earth is the Lord’s, and 
the fullness thereof, and all they that dwell 
therein.” The universe is one grand, corrobo¬ 
rated testimony, in firm repose, in harmonious 
agreement to the truths of revelation. The 
written word, so-called, is not only a book, but 
a collection of many books. The Bible con¬ 
tains philosophy, history, tradition. It presents 
the marvelous dealings of the gracious God to 
His chosen people. It represents many ages, 
and almost every subject of interest to the 


THE CHURCH. 


213 


human race. The Bible is not merely a text-book 
of science, art, or even theology, but the sublimest 
text-book of religion and morals, the revelation 
of God toward man, and admitted by scholars, 
in general agreement, to contain the loftiest con¬ 
ception of all literature. The Bible is conceded 
to contain the grandest treasures of hope and 
religious teachings. Its sublime ethics and doc¬ 
trinal teachings treat of the all but limitless 
topic of the immortal soul. The believer ap¬ 
proaches it in many ways, from the religious 
side, to give expression to his devotional spirit 
in his desire to commune with God; again, 
from its expository side for instruction, in order 
to better learn how to walk amid the many, di¬ 
versified changes of life; again, from the legal 
side, to instruct to his right relation with his 
fellow man. In all the relations of life, from 
the historical side, for knowledge of the past, 
the origin of the dealings of God, the effects of 
sin, the prohibition and injunction, and com¬ 
mandment; again, from the ethical side, in order 
to regulate his conduct whilst becoming more 
fully developed into the fuller stature of the re¬ 
newed manhood; hence believers are led of the 
Holy Spirit to discern in the written word, 


214 


THE CHURCH. 


which meets the ever increasing uptrend of his 
religious development in his desire for safety; 
as inspiration it gives a purer conception of ex¬ 
alted literature, forms of expression, unequaled 
in all literature of the ages. It is, in a word, 
the standard of morals for civilized mankind. 
It is God, the Eternal’s message to the race; the 
source and standard and inspiration of all true 
culture of mind, heart and soul. Its contents, 
the sublimest truths, showing at a glance the 
higher altitudes to which man may attain; the 
love principle from the Genesis to the Revela¬ 
tion. It not only furnishes food for the life that 
now is, hut for the life to come. The highest 
well-being of man whilst in the Church militant, 
and for the blessed development of soul-life in 
the Church triumphant. 

The plea for unity among believers is found 
in all its every breathing; the love principle 
toward all men is upon its every page. Chris¬ 
tians can come in the humblest simple-minded¬ 
ness to learn in meekness, or in company with 
the profoundest erudition. It is stimulating 
alike to the learned or ignorant. Its truth is 
unchangeable, always the same, ever consistent; 
its aim and object is, and ever was, to make 


THE CHURCH. 


215 


known unto men the will of God. The ten 
commandments are not merely the outline, but, 
on the contrary, the very summary and sub¬ 
stance of all religion and ethics. The entire 
law, and the prophets are summed up in “Thou 
shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, 
and thy neighbor as thyself.” The decalogue 
was, and is, the tenfold rule of holiness. The 
Biblical teaching, of all the teachings, is the one 
accented and absolute teaching; it never taught 
the creation of God, but ever bore testimony of 
creation by God. It possesses a different state 
of divine revelation. The truths of unwritten 
laws of all the older humanity are witnessed in 
the antediluvian, or Noahine period, which God 
had made with Noah and his sons, enjoining 
them for all generations to observe the laws of 
human life, in all their manifold social relation. 
The Abrahamic covenant was the special re¬ 
newal of the old covenant of general dispensa¬ 
tion of love to all the chosen. 

The Biblical teaching has stood a witness 
to the rise and fall of all religions. When 
the religion of the Greeks had passed away into 
bankruptcy, and the gods of Olympus became 
the objects of scorn and derision, the learned 


216 


THE CHURCH. 


Socrates, the champion of the science of good 
behavior, substituting it for the safeguard of 
society, but alas! like all man-made and man- 
evolved ethics, it did not save the Ancients from 
vice and degradation. No man-made rule ever 
exalted the race to attain the object. It could 
show, but never achieve. Man-made philos¬ 
ophy and sophistry cannot touch the soul-springs 
of the human heart. The rock of humanity 
needs the Mosaic rod, under divine direction, to 
strike the blow, to produce refreshing waters; 
whilst under tuition, and brought thus far, the 
Holy Spirit, the “other Comforter,” taking the 
directing pathway; no more the pillar of fire by 
night, nor the smoke by day, to lead on, but the 
written word teaching, “not by might, but by 
My Spirit.” 

The great combining power, or love principle, 
in the Church is not creeds, nor intellectual 
bonds, but a vivid, personal realization of the 
Lord Christ’s continued presence in the Church, 
by His Holy Spirit; and all believers are in per¬ 
sonal trust and loving relation, and this personal 
bond uniting in Him, the Head of the body, and 
all members one of another. This realization 
will be joyously fulfilled in the Church of the 


THE CHURCH. 


217 


future—the great incontrovertible fact, that of 
the life of God in the soul presents the true 
unity of Church life to believers. The basis of 
oneness must consist in the common life of fel¬ 
lowship with their Lord, in their loyal adhesion 
to the revealed truth of the written word, and 
to the one common possession of His divine 
Spirit; and thus in unison, cooperatively en¬ 
gaged in the one common work, which the Lord 
has given believers to do, individually and col¬ 
lectively, in blessed unity. A unity of heart, 
of esteem, affection and regard, seeing “all in 
Him, who is over all, to the glory of God.” And 
such unity is not only possible, but is obligatory, 
and will admit of diversified expression, and 
capable of being manifested in thorough con¬ 
sistency with the many-phased ecclesiastical in¬ 
dependence involved in organized arrangements 
at present in vogue, and should operate in per¬ 
fect freedom in love, especially in view of the 
fact that the polity of the body is love. 

A careful examination of the Hew Testament 
records by all believers, would remove a great 
many obstacles in the way of Christian unity, 
and do much toward the unification of the spir¬ 
itual body of believers. In the early Church, 


218 


THE CHURCH. 


there was no written constitution, uniformly ex¬ 
pressed by confession, other than the funda¬ 
mental “belief in Jesus,” and looking toward 
the “blessed hope.” A careful study of the 
apostolic Church leads to the conclusion that the 
apostles exercised no legal restraint over the 
churches. Evidently, our gracious Lord pur¬ 
posed the free exercise of the cordial, Christian 
spirit toward all. He manifestly caused His 
disciples to be associated as a united family, 
vitally united to Himself in this blessed bond, in 
order to spread the Gospel among men. He 
gave no explicit, or prescribed rule, or immut¬ 
able forms, or methods for the embodying of 
the Church life. Ho iron bound dogma char¬ 
acterized His teachings along the line of unity, 
other than the “bond of love.” Accepting the 
two ordinances, which He enjoined upon be¬ 
lievers, they were accorded perfect freedom in 
the matter of all external worship. Hothing 
was to be permitted to hinder the free exercise 
of the Holy Spirit’s power. The Church con¬ 
sisted in the “two and three” that met to wor¬ 
ship, in and upon all occasions, irrespective of 
time and place, in His name; and there, with the 
“two and three,” He, the Christ, the Head, 


THE CHURCH. 


219 


they constituted the true Church. Hence, in 
contemplating the Church in her life and es¬ 
sence, in all ages, she is, be it in the great com¬ 
pany or the little groups of believers, the Lord’s, 
and her life is a life of faith, and the community 
of believers is to develop and perpetuate the ob¬ 
servance; to observe “till He come,” keeping in 
memory those things “which I have told you;” 
remembering, “it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be.” The body of believers, in the present 
state, is inchoate. It is not yet, but is to be, and 
praise be to Him, is fast becoming manifest what 
she will be. The completed man, in all the re¬ 
newed grace of the redemptive life, has yet to 
be seen in the collected body. Notwithstanding 
the Church of Christ is the highest form of social 
existence, and does exhibit the highest possible 
life in earth, the society of believers, commonly 
called the “communion of saints,” is necessary 
to the retention and exhibition of ordinance, 
which her Founder so graciously gave, and the 
Holy Spirit’s indwelling imparts the life through 
the Word, and accomplishes the desired result 
in the Church by effecting human redemption, 
through the agency of saved men and women, 
led of the Holy Spirit. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE DOCTRINAL BASIS OF THE CHURCH THE WRITTEN 
WORD. 

II Peter i: 19.— We have also a more sure word of prophecy , where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a 
dark place, until the day dawn , and the day-star arise in your 
heart. 

II Timothy iii: 16, 17. —All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof, for correction , for in¬ 
struction in righteousness. 

That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works. 

Roman xv : 4. —For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were 
written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of 
the Scriptures might have hope. 

The body of believers, then, is a world com¬ 
munity, born into the Church from above; the 
term of her fraternal relation is, believing upon 
“His name;” the condition of her fellowship is 
the possession of the indwelling Spirit of Christ; 
her life is found “complete in Him;” her labor 
is the “edifying of herself in love,” and as such, 
she is the great, visible, outward organ, laboring 
by the Spirit, through all her organic life. She 
is limitless in her sphere of operation. The 
world is her field, souls’ salvation her object; her 
aim to glorify God; her one burden to make 
known “the exceeding riches of His grace;” her 

220 


« 






THE CHURCH. 


221 


religion spiritual and universal, for all men. 
“In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth 
anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that 
works by love.” “Looking with the eye of faith 
unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings 
and priests unto God, and His Father, to Him 
be glory and dominion forever and ever.” Here 
is the ground upon which isolated bodies of be¬ 
lievers can rejoice in charity. The grand central 
principle of the Church life is love to all men, 
triumphing in the universal Church, free and 
broad in universal love, in perfect agreement, 
one with another, in spiritual freedom and per¬ 
severance, of all-sufficient grace, embodying her 
life, light, love, unity in freedom, “serving the 
Lord.” 

The doctrinal basis is taught in the written 
word, and all the essential principles deserving 
the attention of believers for their mutual edifi¬ 
cation and cooperation. For the unity of the 
visible Church, and thus united, all believers can 
labor in the spirit of love more efficiently, in 
combined action, for the spread of the truth and 
cultivation of Christian ethics, and the more 
thoroughly to secure their practical application 


222 


THE CHURCH. 


to all men. All human nature is the same 
human nature, and is the same depravity, viewed 
from the Gospel standpoint. Education and 
culture may modify the outward and external 
expression of its life in its visible procedure, but 
the entire human heart is the same in its defiant 
rebellion against the Lord and His authority, 
living in continual opposition to the kingdom of 
Christ, in open revolt against the known purpose 
of God in regard to His plan of salvation through 
redemption, crying, “we will not have this Man 
to reign over us,” because “there is no fear of 
God before their eyes.” “There is none that 
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after 
God.” “For all have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God.” This is the condition in 
which grace discovers the natural man, at en¬ 
mity with God, and believers are to meet the un¬ 
saved man with terms of reconciliation, through 
the Gospel. The foes of the grace of God may 
be mustering all their forces to resist it, but the 
believer is to witness to the truth, irrespective of 
all opposition and confusion, and to stand declar¬ 
ing the “counsel of God.” Meanwhile longing 
for, and striving to attain unto the manifestation 
of unity among the brethren, and the true spirit 


THE CHURCH. 


223 


of love and brotherhood, with zeal, for the ex¬ 
tension of our Lord’s kingdom in earth; teach¬ 
ing and enforcing, by a godly example in both 
walk and conversation, the true relation between 
the all-Father, God, and the renewed man, our 
brother, by presenting it in such clear and un¬ 
mistakable formula that he who runs may read, 
“this is the way, walk ye in it,” giving the 
Gospel of the blessed Son of God to all who are 
in the world, lying in sin, for “whom Christ 
died.” By clothing the truth in such present¬ 
able language that all might comprehend it, in 
its purity, simplicity and beauty, “for all and 
upon all.” This is the armor, and the armory, 
which will resist all the weapons of the adversary 
and silence the skeptical philosophies of “The 
Spirit of the Age,” with their sophistical teach¬ 
ings, exhibiting the truth of the Word by a 
skilful recognition of the scope and extent of the 
moral force of the renewed man, through grace, 
in his renovation through redemption, that 
which God as gracious, and man as contrite, 
wills and desires toward all the race. 

Here, then, is the visible body of believers, 
the Church of Christ in her cleared ground for 
action, in making known the truth to every crea- 


224 


THE CHURCH. 


ture, to the “uttermost parts,” executing the 
commission given her by her Lord, to “go, teach 
all nations” in love, and results can be expected 
and hoped for only as believers realize and man¬ 
ifest the principles of Christian unity. The 
weight and worth of all her teachings will be 
weighed by the standards of grace, “one toward 
another.” The cultivation of Christian life is 
essential in order to a right criterion of morality 
and true worth among men. When this is at¬ 
tained, by bringing all the manifold diversities 
into the great focus of the brightening rays of 
the love of God, by subjection to the revealed 
will, and thus subjectively bent on discovering a 
broad, common platform, or means of action in 
the work of making known salvation to a lost 
and ruined world. All believers, from the time 
when the gracious Lord issued the order of the 
day, “go ye therefore,” until He shall come 
again, are to labor and long for all, everything 
pertaining to man, his culture, moral and spirit¬ 
ual obligation and welfare, temporal and eternal. 
The whole man, in every sense, is included in 
the redemptive work, and the sphere of the 
Church operation is to reach man, both in body 
and soul. Man as he is, and as he ought to be, 


THE CHURCH. 


225 


and as lie will finally become, on the side of his 
intellectual faculties; the truths of the written 
word, to which he ought to be subject, with 
all fidelity in the discharge of his intellectual 
duties. On the side of his religious nature. 
Whether he will or not, man has a religious in¬ 
stinct, and he is reached on his spiritual side by 
the spiritual application in his social life, in his 
material life. Man, on every and all sides of his 
compound being, corporeal and spiritual nature, 
in all its complexed relations. Should this be 
efficiently done, man, every man, anywhere 
and everywhere, would long for the removal of 
every hindrance to its ultimate consummation; 
the means of securing it, the one direct subjec¬ 
tion to the sovereign will of God. What a vast 
range of thought and work is here presented to 
the Church! All believers are agreed that man, 
every man, should and ought to be entirely sub¬ 
ject to his God, controlled in both his physical 
and spiritual self. He is so, rationally and in¬ 
tellectually considered, in the sense of being in 
God’s power, and within the sphere of His moral 
government. Hence man ought to be so in all 
his relations, not only objectively, but subjec¬ 
tively; the submissive, willing, loving, redeemed 


226 


THE CHURCH. 


subject of bis sovereign Lord, in bis entire na¬ 
ture and life, in all bis material and physical, bis 
intellectual and spiritual, subjective to bis 
Maker. Nothing short of this entire, complete 
surrender can be considered as the discharge of 
bis obligation to bis God. This is necessary in 
order to the just recognition of the true relation 
of God, the eternal, all-wise Creator, and man, 
the intelligent and finite creation. 

The written word contains and reveals just 
such condition and stipulation. It is the record 
of God’s revealed will unto man, and as such, is 
the source from whence we derive our informa¬ 
tion concerning our relation. It makes known 
the gracious discovery of the all-gracious God’s 
will and purpose. It is the revelation of Him¬ 
self in His way, agreeable to His plan, and is 
above all that could be possibly attained by man, 
in his search through the light of Nature, and 
the power of human reason. The written word 
is the needed revelation, because God is pleased 
to so reveal Himself, and a man that “cometh 
unto God must believe He is” able to thus reveal 
Himself. The very exigencies of man’s condi¬ 
tion are the best evidences of the probability 
and possibility of the Scriptural revelation of 


THE CHURCH. 


227 


God. Man is a moral agent; his condition and 
environment teach him only too plainly that he 
is neither fixed, nor finally settled upon earth. 
The condition of degeneracy surrounding him 
on all sides, showing how truly he is “out of 
course,” a probationer, under and subject to 
moral government, awaiting the great issues of 
the life that now is, in a judgment, and life to 
come. Hence it would appear, if for no other 
reason, such a revelation of God, as moral Gov¬ 
ernor to man, a moral subject, that it were neces¬ 
sary to determine the quality of his conduct 
whilst in this probationary condition. It re¬ 
quires no argument to demonstrate the fact that 
in all science and philosophy man cannot secure 
the knowledge of God, by the mere exercise of 
his reason, because reason, like his body, be¬ 
came weakened and corrupted. If in all the 
earth there cannot be found a perfect man, 
neither can a perfect reason be found. Man’s 
sinful course of procedure brought alike penalty 
to the faculties of his mind, as well as his body. 
Reason is degenerated through the fall, and 
man’s failure to comprehend an adequate knowl¬ 
edge of God, aside from revelation, is impossible. 
Hence the sphere of the Church work is send- 


228 


THE CHURCH. 


ing the messenger to “preach the forgiveness of 
sins;” “to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord;” “to preach the Gospel to the poor.” 
Were man left entirely to reason, and not to 
revelation, there would be no preaching in the 
sense of carrying the message of glad tidings to 
the lost and ruined by sin. The probable con¬ 
dition of man, if left entirely and exclusively to 
the reasoning power, may be rightly inferred 
from his former condition, where grace discovers 
him. Even a partial possession of the knowl¬ 
edge of God, as witnessed in the great semi- 
Christian communities, with all their resultant 
mixture and confusion, with their baleful prac¬ 
tices consequent upon a partial knowledge of the 
truth of God, the profoundest and choicest 
efforts of reason could have no authority over 
conscience, and would be no rule to determine 
matters affecting the life to come. Hence the 
necessity of believers walking by the rule of the 
Word in the Church of God, looking to its coun¬ 
sels and precepts, guided by its admonitions, re¬ 
joicing in the revelation contained in it; teach¬ 
ing its principles; edifying the body by its pre¬ 
cious promises, both in the decalogue and the 
“sermon on the mount,” being the law and the 


THE CHURCH. 


229 


Gospel, the written word, divinely given to the 
Chnrch, the authority in matters of faith and 
praxis. 

This being the case, the written word ought 
to be accepted by all; acknowledged and received 
with devout gratitude to the great Giver, with 
absolute submission to the revealed will in child¬ 
like trust; and believers should strive to bring 
all mankind everywhere into joyous, harmonious 
subjection to the revealed will of God. 

The Church is an association of men and wo¬ 
men, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and for¬ 
giveness of their sins. Sinners forgiven, called 
from and gathered out of a ruined world, and 
joined together in Christ. 

The work of the Church is witnessing to the 
truths of the Gospel, and, through Christ, bring¬ 
ing men dead in trespasses and sins to the guid¬ 
ing sense of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit 
operating through the believer, finds men dead, 
and makes them alive; brings ruined men back 
to right relation with God; finds them defiled 
and polluted by sin, and washes them clean by 
the Word, which is “preached unto them.” The 
heart of stone is made flesh, the enmity is turned 
to love, fear and dread to trust and confidence. 


230 


THE CHURCH. 


The Church is the marvel of the ages, won¬ 
derful in its design and scope; nothing in all the 
world is compared to her; her members all form¬ 
ing one body, whose Head is in heaven; it is 
a union in vital relation with Him, in mystical 
actual union in love and knowledge; her bond is 
perfection, her unity is life in Christ, blessedly 
uniting all the members by the Spirit’s life in¬ 
dwelling; a temple- reared with living stones, 
built upon a foundation prepared before the 
foundation of the world. It is the Spirit work¬ 
ing by love, which preserves the unity in the 
Church. Its life and aim are, in all their mani¬ 
fold relation, different from every other gather¬ 
ing of men and women in all the wide, wide 
universe, and just as the faith-life differs from 
the doubting life, so does the life of the Church, 
in God, differ from every other kind of life in 
the world; in it, but not of it; kept together and 
preserved by the Spirit, which came from above, 
dwelling in the believer, “declaring the glory 
of God” in the midst of her. The center and 
circumference of her life are in Him, who filleth 
all and in all. The mainspring of the believer’s 
joy, the inspiration uniting by the Spirit, glorify 
the Lord in the highest in spiritual praise in the 


THE CHURCH. 


231 


Church. The key to unlock the door of this 
spiritual temple is faith, believing in childlike 
simplicity the blessed truth of the Gospel, re¬ 
ceiving the sunshine of grace and salvation 
beaming throughout all its life, and the glory of 
God, and the Lamb irradiating the whole. Such 
is the Church, the bride of the Lord, His own 
body, mystical. Believers are complete and per¬ 
fect in Him, incomplete and imperfect in them¬ 
selves, separated from all other societies, reli¬ 
gions, associations, by the one, and only one, 
Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom none 
but the believer doth believe, and whom none 
but the redeemed doth worship, thereby dis¬ 
tinguishing the Church from every other gath¬ 
ering, communion or company, recognizing all 
who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and in 
truth, accounting “them which call upon the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ” to be the 
Church, and all believers are “the called,” who 
love our divine Lord. The Church is universal, 
throughout the world, in all lands, among all 
peoples, wherever, and by whomsoever the 
Gospel of the grace of God is preached and be¬ 
lieved; it embraces in its fold all the number of 
the elect to everlasting life, recognizing only 


232 


THE CHURCH. 


one authoritative source for the maintaining of 
union and edification in love, acknowledging the 
Holy Spirit’s guidance into all truth, a universal 
brotherhood, is the Church. The Church of 
the first-born of God, namely, the family of true 
believers, sanctified by the truth, called out of 
all nations, washed in the blood of the Lamb, 
baptized into the name of the Lord; and this 
body, the Church, is a community that is en¬ 
trusted to accomplish the making known of the 
truths of the Gospel to all men, by its testimony 
to the effectual work, in its own personal ex¬ 
perience, both in heart and life; by subjugating 
all and every desire to its great and glorious 
purpose, to wit: the redemption of souls. 

The Church is a body for which its Head died. 
Christ gave Himself, an offering acceptable unto 
God; and however paradoxical it may appear, 
humanly speaking, all the members of the body 
enter into living union with the divine Head, by 
death. It is a death unto sin, to be made alive 
unto God. The life of the believer is hid with 
“Christ in God,” and all that are called into the 
renewed relation are made partakers of the 
Christ-life; hence the believer lives in God by 
dying to himself. The Church is sanctified and 


THE CHURCH. 


233 


cleansed by the blood of Christ; for her He 
died, in order that she might be made alive, and 
every believer is in living, vital union with the 
Lord. The Church of Christ, with its regen¬ 
erated, redeemed souls in every communion, and 
in every considerable congregation, is made, 
through grace, “heirs of God, joint heirs with 
Jesus Christ, our Lord,” the bride, the Lamb’s 
wife. Believers are “bought with a price,” even 
the precious blood of Christ, and are “accepted 
in the beloved,” and called “by grace, wherein 
we rejoice.” Therefore, being “justified by 
faith,” they share the divine nature in all things, 
to be made like their Lord in the first resurrec¬ 
tion; for “God is in the midst of her; she shall 
not be moved. God will help her, and that right 
early.” He is the blessed hope of the Church, 
and He is to come again, and with joy the be¬ 
liever rejoices in the “blessed hope of His ap¬ 
pearing.” Christian, “look for” and love His 
“appearing” in person. It is not a doctrine the 
believer is looking for, but a person, the Divine 
Person. 

Faith rest not upon dogma, nor creed, but 
upon a divine Saviour, even this same Jesus, 
“who God hath highly exalted” to be a Prince 


234 


THE CHURCH. 


and Saviour. Christians do not, or should not, 
rest upon justification by faith, but upon Christ, 
the Justifier; not upon the milennium, with all 
the promised blessedness, but upon Christ, the 
glorious Sun of Righteousness, whose beams 
shall shine forth in all the blessedness of “that 
day.” Christians have safety and unity in 
Christ, and all their joys are from Him, and 
consequently all the service believers can render 
are for Christ, and their true happiness is in 
being with Christ; hence they look for His ap¬ 
pearing, believing that antichrist will then be 
done away, when He shall come to reign in the 
Church, realizing that there can be no kingdom 
of universal righteousness and peace filling the 
earth with the glory and knowledge of the Lord, 
until Christ shall come; and when He shall 
come, He will set the “house in order,” because 
He received a kingdom from heaven, but He is 
to administer it upon the earth, and all believers 
are to share and inherit with Him the joys of 
the kingdom; hence Christians are not so much 
concerned about classification, but about their 
Lord and His appearing; not defining their posi¬ 
tion about dogmas, but about this “same Jesus,” 
who is to “come again,” and to the praise and 


THE CHURCH. 


235 


glory of His name they are united in the sense 
of unity in Him, not in external classification, 
nor in cold, abstract definition of legalism. All 
believers are trinitarians, in the sense of believ¬ 
ing in the threefold manifestation of the one 
God, and rejoice in the broad universality of 
the Father’s love, the gracious Son’s atonement, 
the personal work and influence of the Holy 
Spirit. All are Calvinistic, in the sense of the 
sovereignty of God, and in the immutability of 
His redemptive purpose in grace, and, at the 
same time, Arminian in the sense of the free and 
unfettered freedom of the will, as an indispens¬ 
able factor in moral conduct, believing that man, 
as spirit, possesses an emotional nature and is 
an emotional being, with the impulsive human 
nature, intuitively connected with morality and 
moral action. For all action of a moral kind pre¬ 
supposes emotion or conative energy. Thus seen, 
conative energies are rightly called active pow¬ 
ers or mental forces, which constitute capacity 
for happiness or misery. Kecognizing that be¬ 
lievers are men with saved souls, tenanting cor¬ 
poreal, visible bodies, and it is through his body 
that man comes into contact with the outer 
world. The senses are the means of inter-com- 




236 


THE CHURCII. 


munication, and believers enjoy the blessed fel¬ 
lowship, in all the varied relations of his twofold 
compound nature, by virtue of the union of the 
bond of the Spirit. 

Saved men are then, both body and spirit, the 
Lord’s. Man, as he is here, and as he will be 
hereafter, as spirit, self-conscious, volitional, 
emotional and immortal; all, both soul and body, 
raised to the “praise of Him, who hath redeemed 
him.” Here is the ground upon which high 
churchmen can believe, in the sense of the 
Church being all and all in Him, of heavenly 
origin; the low churchman, equally happy in the 
sense that the Church ought to walk before the 
world in all the blessed humility and lowliness 
of the Master; the ever broadening broad 
churchman in the sense that the love of God is 
broader than the measure of man’s mind, and 
beyond the limitation of the ken of theological 
formula, with a platform wide enough to con¬ 
tain all the variable qualities of the ever shift¬ 
ing man-made and man-evolved creeds, seeing 
all believers are born from above, by the Spirit, 
and called with a heavenly call, regardless of the 
mixed and ever controverted theologies, with 
their many-hued phases of religious descent; but 


THE CHURCH. 


237 


all are within the circle of the fellowship “who 
love onr Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity;” whose 
one corroborated theme is “Jesus Christ, and 
Him crucified, over all, God blessed forever;” 
whose aim and object is “the perfecting of the 
saints, the salvation of the lost;” whose faith is 
fixed as the everlasting hills, but whose opinions 
are as liable to change as the seasons; whose 
faith in the essential, cardinal truths of the 
Word of God remains unshaken unto the end. 

Believers have one united prayer, “that you 
may be filled with the Spirit;” one hope, “the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;” one work, 
“to preach and teach Jesus Christ” wherever 
He may direct. This is unity in diversity; not 
a unity of classification, distinguishing between 
sanctimoniousness and santity, between the spir¬ 
itually called and the worldly-minded professor, 
between profession and possession of the truth, 
between a theological mummy and a living 
Spirit; between an ecclesiastical automaton, 
galvanized into semblance of life by attempting 
priestly function, and a minister of the Word 
of the true sanctuary; between a hierarchy and 
a true brotherhood in the Lord; between a cler¬ 
gyman, who rules over God’s heritage, and a 


238 


THE CHURCH. 


minister who serves among the brethren; be¬ 
tween all the parade of the ecclesiastical ap¬ 
parel and adornment, with its accompanying 
pulpit etiquette, and its savoring of “the mint 
and anise and cumin,” of bowing and posturing, 
to the simple Gospel invitation, “Come unto Me, 
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;” be¬ 
tween a colored altar cloth and the inner cleans¬ 
ing of the Word by the effectual working of the 
Spirit; between the purity and simplicity of the 
faith-life in the soul and the external boasting 
of “the fleshly mind, vainly puffed up.” 

Believers are united in Christ Jesus, their 
great Head, and recognize the body of many 
diversified members to be a unit in Him, and see 
in each believer a regenerated member of the 
body, and described in the word as many 
branches, one vine; many members, one body; 
many stones, one temple. Here the relation of 
the Lord and the believer is a unit, “For by one 
Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether 
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or 
free, and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit.” 

The body of believers, the Church of Christ, 
throughout all the world, and in all ages, are 


THE CHURCH. 


239 


one in Him, irrespective of race or tribal rela¬ 
tion. The “whosoever will” are embraced in 
this blessed corporation of redeemed characters, 
and will meet the heavenly Bridegroom at His 
coming, in all the beauty of the bridal attire, 
and will enter into the glorious marriage supper 
of the Lamb, the joyous fulfilment of the blessed 
expectation of the believer, to be forever with 
the Lord. 

Believers are united in the truth of the Word 
relative to the trinity in unity of the Godhead— 
three persons, yet but one God—and accept it 
wisely, and consider it unwise to speculate about 
it, by offering any solution of what the written 
word declares to be a mystery, and with the 
Apostle Paul rejoice in the truth “without con¬ 
troversy, for great is the mystery.” It is sufficient 
for believers to have the authoritative declaration 
of the Word, knowing that the divine Paraclete 
is come and will guide into all truth those who 
will be led in faith believing. “Therefore judge 
nothing before the time, until the Lord come, 
who both will bring to light the hidden things.” 
This stupendous fact of the presence of the 
Paraclete in the Church to lead believers; He 
will enable them to present the saving truths of 


240 


THE CHURCH. 


the gospel to all men, and here believers have 
sufficient ground for unity in diversity, in the 
field of operation of the Spirit’s work, and a 
reason commensurate in dignity and importance 
to the great work of the salvation of men. How 
much, then, should believers desire unity in the 
light of eternal redemption. This life is no or¬ 
dinary, but a mediate, moral arena, in which 
men are not only being saved, but “sanctified 
by the Spirit against that day,” to the glory of 
Him “who hath called them.” Here is exhib¬ 
ited the magnitude and supreme importance of 
that exalted privilege of the Church by showing 
the inevitable alternative of being save here, or 
punished hereafter. This is the one distinctive 
work of the visible Church of Christ, to present 
to all men the full and free salvation of the 
manifold grace of God. Glorious results can 
be hoped for only as believers fully realize their 
responsibilities in the witnessing of the Word, 
manifesting their love to their sovereign Lord 
by doing His will “till He come.” And what is 
His will? The order of the day, “Go ye there¬ 
fore and teach.” The order has never been re¬ 
pealed, nor abrogated. It is still in force, and 
all believers are under these conditions, and 



THE CHURCH. 


241 


should strive to accomplish the Master’s wishes 
in bringing souls to a knowledge of the truth. 

The Church has in charge the great commis¬ 
sion given by her Lord; the work of evan¬ 
gelization; the means to achieve His work is 
saved men and women; consecrated, spiritually 
minded, intellectual men and women, who will 
and do desire the consummation of the Gospel 
grace in the heart and lifes of all men. The 
Church of Christ, with such a nature, will admit 
of oneness, and in the midst of all the external 
diversity found in isolated communions, she pos¬ 
sesses a real unity, externally manifested by mu¬ 
tual recognition of each fellow believer as a 
member of the body of Christ, in “honor prefer¬ 
ring one another in love.” A glorious whole, a 
world community, to be realized and perfected, 
bringing every individual Christian into close 
personal relation with his Saviour and fellow 
Christians, an ideal unity in diversity, “who 
stand fast in the liberty.” Hot left to the will 
of the flesh, or the will of man, but of God. 
Men are called out of the world, and joined to 
this community, the communion of saints, by 
the Spirit’s operation, through human instrumen¬ 
tality, and are bound together by the Spirit in 


242 


THE CHURCH. 


the bond of perfectness, rejoicing in the gracious 
promises of the Lord, “Ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free.” Because 
of their freedom, believers love the truth, and 
realize the blessedness of “sanctify them through 
Thy truth; Thy Word is truth;” and the truth 
in the Church is blessed to the believer, as he 
looks backward to the ground of his salvation, 
upward for the grant of his salvation, forward 
for the possession and enjoyment of it. The 
cross reminds him, in language only too plain, 
that his Saviour died that he might be en¬ 
franchised; the present shows him the Priest 
upon His throne, ministering by the power of 
His endless life, bestowing by His intercession 
what He purchased by His blood; and as he 
scans the future, with the eye of faith, he be¬ 
holds the emergence of his Lord crowned as 
King of kings, and the Prince of the kings of 
the earth. Believers’ joys are in Him, and the 
expected future is embosomed in the promises, 
realizing them all fulfilled. The doctrines of 
the word are the objects of faith; the duties be¬ 
lievers discharge are the effects of their love to 
Him, who hath redeemed them; their joys are 
held fast by hope. Faith reveals all the gra- 


THE CHURCH. 


243 


cious accomplished work of the sacrificial offer¬ 
ing upon which he leans. Love is the prompter 
of his every duty, and the “blessed hope” of the 
Gospel carries him triumphantly along life’s 
highway, glorifying God in his mortal body, giv¬ 
ing a gleam of the coming glory, a foretaste of 
the joy set before him. His possessions are in 
heaven, an inexhaustible inheritance, which 
eternity can never exhaust. His property is not 
in possession, it is in reversion, kept unto the 
“perfect day.” The title deeds now, the pos¬ 
session then. How no certain dwelling place, 
then a “city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God.” The changeable 
shall give place to the unchangeable; defeat to 
victory; the precarious to that which is stable; 
“fears within and fightings without to that which 
is all peace and all security. The beauty of the 
vision, and the evanescence of it that now is, to 
the majestic splendor that shall never fade or 
dim. Earthly light will become darkness, but 
heavenly brilliancy will shine forth from the 
throne, radiating round and about Him, “who 
is the light thereof.” 

Believers are coming “unto Mount Zion, unto 
the city of the living God, unto the heavenly 


244 


THE CHURCH. 


Jerusalem, unto the innumerable company of 
angels, unto God, the Judge of all, and to the 
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, 
the Mediator of the new covenant,” the cove¬ 
nant of promise; it is sure as eternity; it is amen 
in Christ, completely folded up in Him, be¬ 
cause “in Him all fullness dwells.” The Re¬ 
storer and Sanctifier of His people, who is now 
displaying the riches of His grace by showing 
the present effect of the Gospel, as far as it 
spreads, and the ultimate effect when it will be 
universal, and the joyous, actual experience of 
all to the praise of His name, when He shall 
shine with supernatural effulgence, with His 
glorified, loved and redeemed inheritance. 

Believers are becoming more and more to 
realize the purpose of the Church in its relation. 
Inward reality is becoming more sharply de¬ 
fined. The great, central Head is more clearly 
perceived. The universal brotherhood is all but 
in view. The day is approaching; its gleam is 
bursting through the Word. It is a vital point, 
displaying the sovereign mercies of God, and the 
rule of faith, spiritualizing and comforting the 
believer, enabling him to square his faith and 
hope, life and conduct, by its absolute truths; 


THE CHUECH. 


245 


its every page showing the providence of God; 
every conviction of the human soul corroborat¬ 
ing its testimony. It is only a line separating 
the believer from the object of his affection, but 
a step from the things which are “seen and 
temporal,” to the things which are not “seen 
and eternal.” A step into light, in all the 
blessed fullness of joy, pulsating with the 
glorious reality of life complete in Him, whose 
presence shall light up the everlasting abode of 
the redeemed, who shall be forever one in Him, 
in all the perfection of His grace. Then shall be 
brought to pass the sayings, written, “And I 
heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Be¬ 
hold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He 
will dwell with them, and they shall be His peo¬ 
ple, and God Himself shall be with them, and 
be their God; and God shall w T ipe away all tears 
from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow or crying; neither shall 
there be any more pain, for the former things 
are passed away. And He that sat upon the 
throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” 
All things are new in Him, and all things are 
continually calling the race of worlds to “look 
and live.” To confess His name, to ask, and it 


246 


THE CHURCH. 


shall be given. Pardon for sin. Grace to bear 
with all the multiplied diversities of visible 
Church formulae; to behold in every believer 
the especial object of the Redeemer’s love; to 
hold fast till He come, who will bring unity out 
of diversity, victory out of defeat, and will give 
a crown of life to all that love Him. 

What an inspiration to the believer, realizing 
“that all these things (diversities, differences and 
discords) shall be dissolved. “What manner of 
persons ought ye to be, in all holy conversation 
and godliness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that 
ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may 
be found of Him in peace, without spot and 
blameless.” 

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye 
are called in one hope of your calling. One 
Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and 
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
and in you all.” 

I Timothy iii: 15. — The Church of the living God the pillar and ground 
of the truth. 

Eph. iii: 10, 11. — To the intent that now unto the principalities and 
Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the mani¬ 
fold wisdom of God. 

According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord. 

Mat. xxiii: 8. —Be not ye called Rabbi ; for one is your Master, even 
Christ , and all ye are brethren. 


THE CHURCH 


247 


Mat. xxiii : io. —Neither be ye called Master, for one is your Master 
even Christ. 

II Thes. iii : 6. — IVe command you , brethren, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that 
walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received 
of us. 

Rev. i: 5 , 6 —Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in 
His own blood, 

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father ; 
to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen. 

















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OCT 4 1898 





































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